A new service Claria is launching this month will still deliver advertising to the computer desktops of web surfers. Only this time, they won't be annoying pop-ups.
So-called personalization -- targeting surfers with ads based on their online outings and errands -- was always Claria's goal, says its co-founder and chief executive, Jeff McFadden.
The product Claria is launching, in a test version, is called PersonalWeb. It generates "personalized web portals" on the fly so that a user who just checked baseball scores and movie show times might get a page pulling top items from ESPN and Moviefone. The page will also display targeted ads from BehaviorLink.
An existing portal can also buy Claria's technology to incorporate personalization. Though Yahoo (YHOO) and others now have customization features, they rely on users to set preferences and are not automatic.
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Ask advertisers: Ask Jeeves is launching an upstart advertising network powered by its own search engine -- a move likely to rankle its longtime business partner, Google.
Ask Jeeves' marketing system follows the same model that has been generating tremendous profit growth for Google and Yahoo during the past three years.
Both Google (GOOG) and Yahoo allow advertisers to bid for the right to have their text-based ad links displayed online when specific requests are entered into a search engine or other relevant content is posted on a web page. Advertisers pay a fee each time their links are clicked on.
With its survival no longer in doubt and its websites growing in popularity, Ask Jeeves believes it's well positioned to develop its own advertising network.
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Chinese chips: Chips designed in China will account for 15 percent of global semiconductor sales this year, making the country the world's third-biggest for chip design.
Homegrown players such as No. 3 foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMI) are expanding capacity, and global names from Intel (INTC) to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are assembling or planning to make microchips in China.
Design activity in the United States will lead the market this year, with U.S.-based design houses accounting for 40 percent of new semiconductor sales this year, according to the report last week from technology consultant iSuppli.
China's semiconductor market has been growing rapidly in recent years, and was worth about $40 billion last year. The China market is expected to keep growing at double-digit rates in the next two years -- compared with flat to low single-digit growth for the global industry this year.
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New media: ABC News and CNN.com plan to start providing video news feeds to Yahoo's news site, the companies have announced. CNN.com will offer daily video clips, and ABC will offer on-demand video content.
Video will be available for free to Yahoo users and supported by advertising.
Yahoo intends to integrate video from both ABC News and CNN.com throughout its new site, both on the front page and within story pages.
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Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
