Google, Online Advertising | featured news

France's government says it has persuaded a leading Internet provider to stop blocking online advertisements — a controversial move that would have hit online search giants such as Google.

Google Inc's revenue increased 21 percent as strength in its Internet advertising business offset a persisting drop in ad rates, stirring hopes among investors the Web search leader is close to slowing that decline.

Google, of Mountain View, Calif., issued a fourth-quarter report in January that largely fell flat on Wall Street, as profit came in well below expectations. During a subsequent conference call, executives were peppered with questions about an 8% decline in prices paid by advertisers during the period every time a user clicked on their ads.

Google Inc's quarterly results fell short of Wall Street's heightened expectations for the holiday season as declining search advertising rates contributed to a rare miss, triggering a 9 percent slide in its shares.

Google’s core business, search advertising, seems so far to have weathered the economic doldrums that have hurt other sites and publications relying on ads.

As search spending continued to rise in the just-ended third quarter, Google regained market share lost during the last couple of quarters to Microsoft's Bing search engine, according to a new report to be released Tuesday morning by Efficient Frontier, which manages about $1 billion in search, display, and social advertising for agencies and advertisers. ...

Google Inc will pay $500 million to settle government charges that it showed ads for pharmacies that operate illegally, regulators are expected to announce on Wednesday, according to a report in the New York Times.

To win in the fast-growing digital-advertising market, Web companies such as Facebook, Google and Groupon are increasingly wooing mom-and-pop businesses.

Most Internet analysts suggest that MySpace fell from grace because it crumbled in the face of stiff competition from Facebook. But a Reuters report suggests that it may have been Google that dealt the fatal blow by accident as long ago as 2006.

Google revealed for the first time how it splits advertising revenue with search and content publishers, a move made in response to calls from publishers and regulators for greater transparency.