September 2007 Quick Links Part I
By Eric Goldman Marketing * From the NYT: There are 200+ auto repair shops in the “Iron Triangle” area in New York, and apparently they compete fiercely with each other, shouting out price quotes as cars needing repairs drive by….
August 2007 Quick Links, Part I
By Eric Goldman Search Engines * Google extended its ad serving technology to consider a user’s past search phrases in addition to their current search term. * Greg Linden: “Google is teasing too many lions.” * BusinessWeek: Some VCs are…
Google’s AdWords Contract Upheld Again, But Advertiser Lawsuit Against Google Continues–CLRB Hanson v. Google
By Eric Goldman CLRB Hanson Industries LLC v. Google Inc., 5:05-cv-03649-JW (N.D. Cal. Aug. 21, 2007) This lawsuit is one of several advertiser lawsuits against search engines from 2005 (see my initial post when the lawsuit was filed). Many of…
Food Tastes Better When Branded “McDonalds”
By Eric Goldman Recently I blogged on a study showing that consumers like search results more when they are branded as coming from Google, even if the search results are substantively identical. We now have a similar study, this time…
July 2007 Quick Links, Part II
By Eric Goldman Virtual Worlds * After a remarkable run as media darlings, Second Life is now experiencing some of the inevitable backlash. Case in point: Wired’s “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life.” In this…
Advertiser Liability for “Contributory” Trespass to Chattels Redux–Burgess v. American Express
By Eric Goldman Burgess v. American Express Co., 2007 NCBC 15 (N.C. Superior Ct. May 21, 2007) David Fish points to an interesting new ruling on the subject of advertiser liability for pop-up advertising (I’m inferring that the pop-ups were…
June 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Email * Spam cases are coming at a regular clip, and it’s tricky divining the latest state of the law. Two recent cases that caught my attention: – US v. Impulse Media Group, 2007 WL 1725560 (W.D….
Lead Fraud (A Cousin of Click Fraud)–NetQuote v. Byrd
By Eric Goldman NetQuote, Inc. v. Byrd, 2007 WL 1725587 (D. Colo. June 13, 2007) I know advertisers are fed up with click fraud, but let’s be clear–every ad payment method will be gamed. This case nicely illustrates that challenge….
Lawyer Rating Service Sued–Browne v. Avvo
By Eric Goldman Browne v. Avvo, CV7 920 (W.D. Wash. complaint filed June 14, 2007) You may have heard about Avvo, the latest entrant in the suddenly crowded field of lawyer ratings/rankings. Avvo pulls together a variety of third party…
May 2007 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Spam * MySpace Inc. v. The Globe.com Inc., No. CV 06-3391 RGK (C.D. Cal. Feb. 27, 2007). This case has some personal interest because theglobe.com was one of my flagship clients before I left the law firm…