ad networks

—Google had 1M advertisers in '07: So while that secret is out, you can only guess how many more advertisers Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has now. UBS analyst Ben Schachter speculates the search giant has between 1.3 million and 1.5 million advertisers at this point.

After witnessing ad networks and exchanges capture more revenue from major marketers these last few years, traditional media agencies are starting to play catch up. Interpublic Group's buying and planning shop Mediabrands is working on a digital marketplace tool for clients that will include behavioral targeting. IPG's major ad holding company rivals are not far behind either, WSJ says, noting that WPP Group, Publicis Groupe and Havas are also trying to come up with similar programs.

The notion that a number of U.S. cities could be without a local daily newspaper within two years has quickly approached the level of conventional wisdom.

-- Goodmail to launch video-in-email ad system; Comcast, Cox, AOL, Yahoo as partners: Goodmail Systems, a Silicon Valley-based email marketing provider is slated to roll out an email video system called Certified Video next year.

Last week I heard about a research report filled with the sort of bad news I've come to expect about B2B media.As I read about the report, something inside me seemed to give way. I realized it was time for me to say something I have hesitated to say:The B2B industry as we know it is about to collapse.Allow me to explain:

Contextual display ad targeting firm LucidMedia has secured $8.8 million in a third round of funding. Lake Street Capital, RLI Partners, Melton Investments and Redleaf Group all participated in the round, along with an investment from Silicon Valley vet Milan Mandaric. The Reston, VA-based company will use the funds to bolster the launch of its contextual display ad network, set up a New York office and hire a national sales team.

In making the case for vertical ad networks at the OMMA AdNets conference in New York Thursday, Glam Media CEO Samir Arora highlighted the "media paradox of the Internet" to explain the logic behind grouping affinity Web sites for the benefit of publishers and advertisers. Arora argued the Internet has emerged as the most influential medium, even if still not viewed as the most "authoritative" compared to traditional outlets.

I see it reported with regularity now that there are 300 ad networks, usually coupled with the assertion that the world would be a better place

John Battelle, one of the founders of Wired magazine and The Industry Standard, went on to start Federated Media Publishing. He's also the author of the bestseller The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. And he knows a thing or two about vertical ad networks. Here, he takes no prisoners.

With Jerry Yang seeming to beckon Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) back to the bargaining table now that its search ad pact with Google is dead, ad executives speaking in betwee