Yahoo is seeking a younger demographic as it looks to shed its outdated image and reliance on an “aging demographic." The internet brand plans to ramp up advertising and marketing to the younger set. 

"Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years," CFO Ken Goldman said at Tuesday’s J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston, according to Reuters. "Cool" includes greater visibility on outdoor billboards and at sporting events to catch the eye of 18- to 34-year-olds and promote new products, which will require a significant ad spend across multiple media.

Since taking the helm last summer (and instating a controversial no work-from-home policy) Marissa Mayer has already launched new versions of Yahoo's web email and Flickr photo sharing service and acquired several small start-ups, setting Yahoo stocks up for a near 70 percent surge. But analysts attribute the rise, at least in part, to stock buybacks and the growing value of Yahoo's Asian portfolio. "I do like the idea of buying back stock," said Goldman. "So I don't necessarily suggest at all that the fact that we've got a little bit more to go on the existing purchase does not mean that we would not go beyond that and buy more."Continue reading...

Hailed as the "internet's highest honor" by the New York Times, the Webby Awards assess thousands of entries every year in an effort to recognize outstanding brands, initiatives, designs and individuals across the internet.

This year's awards garnered 11,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries, with people in more than 200 countries voting online in the People's Voice awards.

The 2013 winners include special honors for music artist Frank Ocean, the Obama for America 2012 presidential campaign, and Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who spearheaded online activism in support of gay rights.

Brands taking home awards this year include Change.org, Google Maps and Glassdoor. brandchannel's parent company, Interbrand, was nominated in the Best Visual Design- Function category for its Best Global Brands 2012 website.

Here's how some other top brands made out this year:Continue reading...

ICANN just launched a brand database for trademarks, Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), allowing businesses to register their brands ahead of the release of the next wave of 2,000 generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to be introduced later this year, part of a larger effort to quell concerns about cyber-squatting and trademark infringement as seen in this introductory video:

Suffixes such as .bet, .web, .news, .app, .home, .inc, and .gay will become available in May as alternatives to the current and familiar .com, .org and .net. Some 1,200 gTLDs are expected to be approved—up from the current 280.

"So, for example, if someone applies for the suffix Apple, Apple will be able to see what the website is selling—whether it is a local orchard or someone selling fake Apple computers," said Jonathan Robinson, a consultant on the project. "New top-level domain names present a land of opportunity, but there are also threats. Prior to this there has been no universal protection available to brand owners. This goes a long way to mitigating the threat."Continue reading...

More than 40 companies including Apple, Facebook and Twitter have been targeted in malware attacks linked to an Eastern European gang of hackers using an iPhone-developer website, iPhoneDevSDK. 

The hackers are mining for proprietary research and intellectual property they can re-sell underground, with their assault being called a “sophisticated attack” by Facebook and “extremely sophisticated” by Twitter.

RSA Security Inc. has called their tactics a “waterhole” attack, as victims are attracted to the source of the infection. This technique attacks a centralized website with many visitors and secretly infects vulnerable machines using an un-patched exploit. It differs from a targeted attack like emailing a malware-laden attachment to a specific user.

Apple said Tuesday in a statement, "We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple." Apple countered with release of a Java patch for OS X users and a tool that will sweep Mac computers for any Java malware and remove the offending software, which millions of Mac users must now install.Continue reading...

ICANN has been moving full-steam ahead under new CEO Fadi Cherhade, announcing that April 23rd will be the approval date for the first TLDs for delegation.

Once recommended for delegation, an applicant must pass a technical test and sign a Registry agreement with ICANN, which takes between five to six months, before a registry launch—which can take up to a year after they have been approved for delegation. 

There is no “sunrise” period for branded TLDs (Top Level Domains), but generic terms or open registries require a sunrise period of 30 days for trademark holders, followed by a 60-day landrush period, after which public domain sales could start. 

About 1,900 applications for new gTLDs are currently pending; 40 percent are for brand names and another slice is for “generic” words like .app, .insurance, .search and .book. “If allowed to register as closed domains, a single player could control the entire domain string related to a “generic” word – and prevent others from registering within it,” notes an article by InfoLawGroup.

Many have already voiced concern about “closed generic” domains and ICANN has asked the public for comment by March 7, 2013. 

Meanwhile, the American Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has asked ICANN to slow the process down “to set up a defensive mechanism so trademark holders can prevent registration of their exact trademarks across all the registries for a single reasonable fee.”Continue reading...

As traditional media brands continue to be disrupted by digital aspirants, BuzzFeed and Tumblr have emerged as robust contenders for dominance in the arenas of social content-sharing and socially-driven advertising.

Buzzfeed just raised $19.3 million in a fourth round of funding led by existing investor New Enterprise Associates, resulting in a war chest of $34-million to hire new writers, expand the network globally and begin an acquisition shopping spree.

Tumblr, meanwhile, counts more than 200 million monthly visitors and 18 billion pageviews and is also looking for revenue-generation to justify its valuation, and visual ads are a seamless and organic fit. Which is better positioned to win the Interwebz?Continue reading...

Two federal actions regarding online privacy for U.S. consumers shed light on the increasing complexity of digital safeguards in today’s wired world.

Flanked by bipartisan legislators and both Houses, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled proposed changes and updates to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (Coppa). The legislation was introduced in 1998, a lifetime ago in the social networking milieu of 2012.

The Washington Post calls the FTC proposal a "landmark update," while the New York Times says it "significantly expands the types of companies required to obtain parental permission before knowingly collecting personal details from children, as well as the types of information that will require parental consent to collect."

The Los Angeles Times commented that the FTC is giving "a pass" to Apple, Google and Facebook, as "Federal regulators exempted app purveyors such as Apple's App Store and Google Play from having to police apps. Providers of plug-ins such as Facebook with its 'Like' button were also exempted."

The move also comes during a week when the social web rose up against Instagram for moving to commercial users' photos — and swiftly backpedaled — in a user revolt that had repercussions for the photo-filtering and -sharing site's parent, Facebook, which was lampooned in a new video by Funny or Die today.Continue reading...

Google wants "open" to be the word associated with its brand. The company is creating an "AirPlay-like open platform" and it's a key member of the Open Internet Coalition, a lobby group backing the FCC's net neutrality rules in the US. It's also trying to raise awareness about Open Internet issues globally, today releasing a video (below) and Twitter hashtag campaign ahead of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) global meeting in Dubai. The call to action:Continue reading...