Online ad issues and World Cup tweets

15/06/10 posted by Liz Niland

Just as we, and the rest of the tech-reporting blogs, predicted, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are reportedly very interested in Apple’s new advertising rules for developers. Just as they probed the Google/AdMob sale, the FTC will be looking into whether Apple’s tactics are too anti-competition for the mobile advertising market.

All is still quiet on the Apple front but it’s starting to look like their plans may be as sinister as AdMob first thought. Under the new rules, interested ad-development companies can’t be a “developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple”, meaning that, as TechCrunch put it, the pool of giants that could buy a mobile ad network and compete with Apple’s iAd on Apple products has now been substantially limited to pretty well only include media companies like News Corp and non-mobile onliners such as Yahoo and AOL.

Given the revelations in Mary Meeker’s latest web trends presentation, it is no surprise that wannabe mobile advertisers are up in arms over Apple: She suggests that online advertising may be finally entering a golden age. A combination of comparatively low cost-per-impression (when compared to other advertising media) and a very large audience is proving to be a winning formula, and Apple no doubt know this. The continuing buzz surrounding the iPad and iPhone will only add to the massive opportunities for advertising on these devices.

In World Cup news, word is out that a number of coaches from across the globe have forbid their players from tweeting for the duration of the competition. As posted on Mashable, “players on the teams from Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Holland, Germany, Argentina and England are forbidden to use social services such as Twitter.” While it might seem like a frustrating form of micro management, the potential problems caused by an off-the-cuff tweet most probably warrant such scrutiny in the eyes of many wary team officials.