BusinessWeek reported yesterday that AOL is rumored to be considering ValueClick to its roster of online marketing firms.  AOL has been pretty acquisition hungry these days, especially in the online space, and perhaps they’ve got their recent acquisition of Tacoda, a behavioral marketing firm, Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising network; and AdTech AG, a software provider and international online ad-serving company, Lightningcast, a video advertising firm, and Advertising.com, which operates the largest third-party display network they would be covered in the online ad space.

But the FTC is not always happy about ValueClick’s habits and is currently investigating certain ValueClick Web sites which promise consumers a free gift of substantial value, and the manner in which the company drives traffic to such Web sites, especially through e-mail to determine whether the company’s lead generation activities violate either the Federal Trade Commission Act or the CAN-SPAM act.

-Dianna Dilworth

Demandware went all out with their party tonight at Shop.org.  The partnership with Playboy announced earlier this year must be going well to have hosted those thousands of people at the Venetian hotel’s Tao bar.

The mini burgers and sushi went down well as I discussed the police work that goes into social media with Brett Hurt, CEO of Bazaarvoice.  After asking how do you prevent bad review sabotage, an experience a friend of mine recently had on Amazon with a product that was only cleared up through Amazon’s intervention, I learned that at Bazaarvoice they actually hand read every review twice to keep things clean?  Before posting, they check for appropriate language, okay sure.  But they also check user accounts, IP address and a user’s profile type (a consumer and a professional photographer may have different experiences/expectations with a new digital camera) to make sure that manufacturers are not posting bad reviews, or individuals out to get a product cannot ruin its future of a product.

At the dinner, I sat with Gary Jackson, COO of Quova, a company whose name sounds familiar, but that I had never actually heard of.  The firm tracks IP addresses and makes sure that they are secure for almost every kind of e-commerce related site and then some.
They track Major League Baseball’s site, mlp.com, which looks at where you are located to see if you are allowed to watch the programming online.  If you are too close, they want you to tune in to the television.  Major league baseball watching consumers?  Just like that episode of the Simpsons when Bart goes on Focusin and becomes paranoid and his hallucinations become warranted in the fact that Major League Baseball is spying on consumers…

-Dianna Dilworth