Well, our intern just left for good. I’m kind of sad, to be honest. I’m not sure who we’re going to pick on, get to do our dirty work, and generally abuse and harrass.

However, I’m starting to slowly realize that in this business, you don’t really ever say goodbye. It’s usually Friday a vendor is working for AOL, and on Monday it’s Specific Media.

I’m almost positive that we’ll meet again, because the advertising world, even on a national scale, is so small. You see it all the time when you go to conferences…the same people are congregating together in the same spots, talking about all the times they shared a previous conferences while they were doing the same thing.

You sometimes hear about those folks that “fell out of it,” and it’s always said with such a dire tone. “Yeah, he’s not in the business anymore…”

Eh, not sure where I was going with this, but I did want to formally say goodbye to our media intern Lindsay, who will no doubt make a great media planner one day.

Sean

We’ve got the new episode of the AdBastards podcast up for download.

Direct Link to the Show!

This episode, we talk about monetizing all these free services, including Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, etc. The conversation then turns to the Valueclick vs. Tacoda lawsuit around a behavioral targeting patent. We finish off with some very random comments on the Performics purchase.

As always, feel free to leave a comment below, or shoot us an email at adbastards@gmail.com.

Sean

Interesting article on MediaPost today reporting that ValueClick is suing Tacoda for allegedly infringing two patents on behavioral targeting platforms.
Link: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=87909&Nid=45708&p=224900

Scott Barlow, vice president and general counsel at ValueClick says,”We feel that we have a patent on the general principles of behavioral targeting, and that’s what we’re enforcing.”

Can you really patent BT? What would the ramifications be to the online ad industry if ValueClick holds that patent? Will discuss all that on the next AdBastards.

Joseph

Because it is meaningless. What is viral? Why viral? How viral? When viral?

Being a young’n in the industry, I finally know what it means to “follow the buzzword”. I’ve heard that term used more often in inappropriate contexts than I care to admit. However, nobody is looking at the real issue. It’s not “We want viral”. It’s “we want engagement/valuable communication with our users”. So why not try to establish that.

Instead of setting out to make something viral, make it remarkable. That way, whether it takes off or not, it’s still a compelling piece of content that you won’t mind sharing.

This post might be a year to late, but then again, I heard this phrase used to excess on Friday. Methinks the “viral buzz” is not quite over yet.

So here it is. Finally put something up that will be used more than the BlogSpot site. This will be the official home of the AdBastards Podcast, and we’ll post links and direct downloads of the shows here.