Yahoo to transform Web ads with new system

Media News - Thursday, September 25, 2008



Yahoo to transform Web ads with new system

Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang told Reuters in an interview that publishers and advertisers would benefit from a more efficient process that would allow them to sell their products and services on more than one website at a time. Yang said the system, called APT, would be much simpler than the current process of selling banner ads through hundreds of websites - a time-consuming model with roots in traditional media like television and newspaper advertising. 'This system allows cross-selling between sales forces, it allows us to have visibility of what pricing is happening and where,' said Yang, who added the system could transform the online Web industry's inefficiencies in selling ads. Yahoo is hoping to build a system as efficient for online display advertising as the one run by Google Inc in search advertising. Google's market-leading search advertising sales system is largely automated via an auction bidding process. Yahoo's first APT partner will be the nearly 800 newspaper websites of the Newspaper Consortium which includes MediaNews Group. It will start to roll out APT in the fourth quarter, and from early 2009, will place Yahoo's own inventory on the system as well as other publishers and advertisers. (Reuters) ...

(Source:EJC)

Dear friends,

Canada, France and Italy are threatening to break their poverty promises by slashing aid budgets. Sign the petition to stop them -- and poverty expert Jeff Sachs will deliver our messages to world leaders gathered at the UN this week! World leaders gather this Thursday at the United Nations to renew the fight against extreme poverty. But three countries -- France, Canada, and Italy -- are threatening to undermine the world's anti poverty efforts, by slashing their development aid budgets and breaking their international promises.Sarkozy, Harper, and Berlusconi promised to contribute 0.7% of their national income to fighting poverty -- aid money that would save millions of lives, and still leave these donor countries with 99.3% of their money. But apparently, they think 99.3% is not enough.Our best chance to keep these rich countries to their word on aid delivery is to raise the alarm in New York this week. Sign our petition now, spread it to friends and family -- and our friend, world famous economist and top UN official on poverty, Jeffrey Sachs will deliver it in speeches to the assembled heads of state at the UN summit this Thursday. The more names on the petition, the stronger the message that promises on poverty must be kept. Click below to sign now:http://www.avaaz.org/en/poverty_promise_breakers

We know that public outcries like this one can work -- because massive people-powered movements have transformed the fight against poverty over the last decade. The Jubilee movement cancelled hundreds of billions in dictator debt in 2000, and pushed world leaders to adopt the Millennium Development Goals to cut world poverty in half by 2015. In 2005, poverty campaigners the world over won commitments from G8 leaders to double aid to Africa. Because of these efforts millions of poverty related deaths have been stopped and millions more children are attending school, sleeping under anti-Malaria bed nets, and drinking clean water. Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have all exceeded the 0.7% target and in this year aid rose in real terms in nine EU countries. If all countries stick to their promises, programmes fighting disease and alleviating extreme poverty could be scaled up across the world.But this year, some rich-country leaders apparently think that the public no longer cares about poverty. In Canada, which kept 99.7% of its income last year, Stephen Harper seems more interested in winning his election than in upholding Canada's tradition of moral leadership. France's Sarkozy, for all of his diplomatic efforts, appears to think that his people don't care about lives and deaths beyond his borders. And in Italy -- already one of the stingiest donors in the world -- Berlusconi appears happy to slash crucial funding, even though, as host of next year's G8 summit, his actions set an example for the other richest countries.French and Italian Avaaz members are already flooding their governments with thousands of messages about aid. But those of us in the rest of the world can play a crucial role as well--sending Harper, Sarkozy, and Berlusconi a clear signal that we expect them to keep to their word -- so please help us raise an outcry that can't be ignored at the UN summit:http://www.avaaz.org/en/poverty_promise_breakers

In recent years, millions have been galvanized by a vision: that ours can be the generation that ends extreme poverty. With other crises vying for our attention, the strength of this vision is now being tested. Let's join together and ensure that leaders keep their promises -- so that the promise of human potential in even the poorest communities can be unleashed.

With hope,

The Entire Avaaz Team

(Source:Avaaz News)

IRAN'S LEADER GIVES THUNBS DOWN DURING BUSH SPEECH

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 2 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS -

Iran's leader flashed a thumbs-down Tuesday as President Bush denounced Tehran as a sponsor of global terrorism in his farewell address to the U.N.
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Then Bush got less than 10 seconds of polite applause at the end of a speech in which he urged world leaders to take "an unequivocal moral stand" against suicide bombings, hostage taking and other terror tactics.
It was a decidedly low-key appearance, rehashing familiar themes, devoid of the passion Bush displayed in the early years of his presidency when he summoned the world after Sept. 11, 2001, to a battle against terrorism and tried — but failed — to win U.N. backing for the war in Iraq.
The president, humbled by economic turmoil that has darkened the final days of his presidency, also tried to speak reassuringly to the leaders about the financial upheaval on Wall Street that has forced him to set aside core principles of capitalism and authorize government takeovers of failing companies.
"I can assure you that my administration and our Congress are working together to quickly pass legislation approving this strategy," Bush told the General Assembly. "And I'm confident we will act in the urgent time frame required." Bush scrapped a planned political trip to Florida on Wednesday to return directly to Washington.
Bush's 22-minute address in the packed, 2,000-seat hall was mostly a restatement of his previous condemnations of terror, calls to advance democracy and criticism of the United Nations for "inefficiency and corruption" and "bloated bureaucracies." Still, Bush said the U.N. and other multinational organizations are now "needed more urgently than ever" to combat terrorists and extremists who are threatening world order.
With only 119 days remaining in his presidency, Bush found his usually busy schedule of one-on-one meetings with other world leaders had dwindled to a bare minimum. He talked with Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, about Saturday's truck bombing in Islamabad and held a last-minute meeting with Uganda's leader, Yoweri Museveni. Peace talks have faltered between Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, which has been waging one of Africa's longest and most brutal rebellions.
Bush also met on Governors Island with a political dissidents from a dozen countries, from China to Cuba, and attended a USAID conference on food security.
At the General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat in the massive hall and seemed intent on showing disinterest as Bush spoke. He waved to the people in the galleries along the side and flashed a broad smile. Turning to an aide as Bush spoke, Ahmadinejad made a fist and turned his thumb down to the desk.
The Iranian leader has defied demands from the United States and other powers to halt a suspected nuclear weapons program. Ahmadinejad has vowed that Iran's military will "break the hand" of anyone targeting the country's nuclear facilities. In a series of interviews, Ahmadinejad blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets.
Bush said regimes like Syria and Iran continue to sponsor terror but that "their numbers are growing fewer, and they're growing more isolated from the world."
But he warned: "As the 21st century unfolds, some may be tempted to assume that the threat has receded. This would be comforting. It would be wrong. The terrorists believe time is on their side, so they've made waiting out civilized nations part of their strategy. We must not allow them to succeed."
Bush said the international community must stand firm against the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. He said that despite past disagreements over the U.S.-led war in Iraq, members of the U.N. must unite to help the struggling democracy succeed. And he scolded Russia for invading neighboring Georgia, calling it a violation of the U.N. charter.
"The United Nations' charter sets forth the equal rights of nations large and small," he said. "Russia's invasion of Georgia was a violation of those words."
Bush called on the U.N. to focus more on results and aggressively rally behind young democracies like Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Liberia.
He said that instead of issuing statements and resolutions after terrorist attacks, the U.N. and such organizations must work closely to prevent violence. Every nation has responsibilities to prevent its territory from being used for terrorist, drug trafficking and nuclear proliferation, he said.
In the meeting with Pakistan's president, Bush and Zardari discussed the weekend bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 53 people and U.S. military incursions into Pakistan targeting militants using remote areas of the Muslim nation to launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"Your words have been very strong about Pakistan's sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country, and the United States wants to help," Bush said about the incursions, which have caused a rift in U.S.-Pakistan relations.
On Tuesday evening, Bush was to co-host an Iraq coalition meeting with President Jalal Talabani of Iraq, consisting of those countries who participated in the coalition on the ground in Iraq. The coalition is shrinking from about 30 countries to a handful in the next 90 days or so. Iraq is drafting bilateral agreements with the U.S. and other countries to replace a U.N. mandate authorizing their presence expires at year-end.
"A lot of people around the world have made sacrifices along with the Iraqi people that enabled a country to emerge from the shadows of tyranny," Bush told representatives of the nation during the meeting. "I want to thank those around the table for showing courage and vision and resolve."
Talabani and Zardari were among foreign leaders slated to meet on Wednesday with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee.

(Source:Yahoo News)