A law professor at Santa Clara University in California is accusing Google of an “impermissible conflict of interest” in regards to its practice of bidding in Adwords auctions in order to place ads for their own products and services. These are known as house ads. Eric Goldman says the practice distorts ad value and just more »

In an interview with BusinessWeek magazine, the COO of Facebook said ad spending on the site is at an all time high, a sign that big advertisers are starting to see advertising on the site in a new and lucrative light. Sheryl Sandberg claims that the site’s advertisers have increased their ad spending by 10 more »

Facebook defended its use of targeted ads before a Congressional hearing today. The site insisted that using its users’ profiles to allow advertisers to target specific demographics and audiences was not a violation of privacy because no personally identifiable data is shared.

The site is no stranger to privacy concerns having weathered storms of outrage over the news feed introduction in 2006, the Beacon ad program in 2007, and TOS revisions earlier this year. It has always been swift to make corrections and offer apologies however.

Google and Yahoo have announced that they will delay their controversial advertising partnership for about a month. Both companies say the delay is designed to give them more time to deal with the Department of Justice and its concerns about a possible antitrust issue.

“The companies have agreed to a brief delay in implementing this agreement to continue our ongoing discussions with the (U.S.) Department of Justice,” Yahoo said in a statement. “We have had discussions with regulators and look forward to responding to their questions about this agreement.”

The deal allows Google to sell some of Yahoo’s advertising space. Advertisers greeted the announcement of the deal with deep concerns and fear of higher ad rates. Google claims that since it sells its ads via auction they have no control over prices.

A Michigan woman faces 30 years in prison for several charges, including intent to commit murder resulting from her attempt to hire someone to kill her lover’s wife. Authorities say Anne Marie Linscott, 49, used the popular site Craigslist to recruit a hit man. Respondents to her advertisement of a “freelance position” were told she was looking for “silent assassins” and asked to “eradicate” the victim for $5000.

She also provided personal info on the victim such as name, age, and place of employment. Linscott met her lover, identified only as Duane, when she took an online course several years ago. As part of a deal made between Linscott and the government, prosecutors dropped charges that she had left an explosive device outside the victim’s home in April of 2007. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

If you were busy updating your Twitter this morning, you might have noticed that the service was running a bit slow. That’s because the creatures inside the Twitter are currently mulling over the possibilities of adding advertising to the site, weighing their options, which are actually pretty much “advertise or die” at this point. You more »