News

• YouTube rolls out paid subscription channels

  Not everything on YouTube is free any more. The video-sharing website will now charge users a monthly fee to view certain content offered through subscription channels, the Google-owned site announced Thursday.

• Consumer service lawsuit looms for Google in Germany

  A lawsuit against Google's customer service practices in Germany is looming after the company declined to sign a document promising German consumer organizations to start answering customer emails individually.

• EU publishes Google antitrust remedy proposals

  Google's rivals have been given one month to assess the search giant's proposed remedies, the European Commission announced Thursday.

• Senator rips self-regulatory do-not-track efforts

  The U.S. online advertising industry has not lived up to a promise to stop the online tracking of Internet users who ask advertisers to do so, a senior U.S. senator said Wednesday.

• Survey: Internet users like targeted ads, free content

  Internet users overwhelmingly enjoy free Web content supported by advertising, and they'd rather see advertisements targeted toward their interests than random ads, according to a survey released this week by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA).

• Google gets consumer service ultimatum from German consumer groups

  Google received an ultimatum Thursday from German consumer organizations that want it to start answering questions from its users via email.

• Facebook, Pandora and Twitter seize mobile ad display market

  An IDC study has found sweeping changes in how mobile display advertisements are sold, with Facebook, Pandora and Twitter successfully wresting away control from advertising networks over the last year.

• Mobile phone apps view private data more than necessary, says French study

  Mobile phone apps are accessing users' private data and transmitting it to remote servers far more than appears strictly necessary, while users have inadequate tools to monitor or control such access, according to a new study by two French government agencies.

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  Click fraud botnet defrauds advertisers up to $6 million

  An advertising analytics company said it has discovered a botnet that generates upwards of US$6 million per month by generating bogus clicks on display advertisements.

• Twitter gives small businesses more advertising options

  Twitter is beefing up its self-service ad platform to give smaller businesses more targeting and analytics tools to reach potential customers on the site.

• Google removes ad-blocking software from Play store

  Google has removed some programs from its Play store that block web advertisements, contending the applications violate its rules by interfering with other services.

• SXSW 2013: No new Twitter, but marketing and hardware stand out

  South by Southwest Interactive is best known as the technology festival that put such social networking mainstays as Twitter and Foursquare on the map. But if there was a "next big thing" at this year's event, finding it would be pretty hard.

• Tech groups question new do-not-track bill

  New legislation in the U.S. Senate that would allow Internet users to tell companies to stop tracking them is unnecessary and could slow e-commerce growth, some tech groups said.

• Facebook confirms buying Microsoft's Atlas to boost ad sales

  Facebook is buying Microsoft's Atlas Advertiser Suite, an ad analysis platform, in a move that should increase its advertising revenue and give marketers better information about their campaigns across the social network, on both desktop and mobile.

• Telcos required to give more info about pricing

  More rules for how telcos sell and market service come into effect 1 March, as part of the revised Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) code.