EasySponsorship: DIY Fundraising

EasySponsorship is a free online application that allows users to create their own online sponsorship/fundraising pages to collect donations from anyone from anywhere in the world for anything.

Each user is given a unique web address that they can send to friends and associates as part of their fundraising efforts. Supported currencies are Pounds Sterling, US dollars and Euros. The service is completely free and all money goes straight to the user, with a revenue model reliant on site advertising.

TechCrunch

WPP Group Buys a Top Digital Agency

The WPP Group, the giant advertising company, bought Blast Radius, a leading interactive agency, as part of a digital shopping spree.

New York Times

Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook

The investment ends two months of jockeying among Microsoft, Google and Yahoo for the right to invest in and forge close ties with the fast-growing social networking Web site.

New York Times

Facebook Experiments With Ads Targeting People’s Interests

The big promise of advertising on social networks has always been the ability to target members by their own self-proclaimed interests and demographics. Facebook, as expected, has quietly taken a step in that direction with its Facebook Flyers ads (these are sidebar advertising widgets that Facebook still controls, as opposed to the majority of ad inventory on Facebook that falls under its deal with Microsoft). In terms of revenues, these Flyers probably don’t amount to much yet, but this is one Faecbook experiment worth keeping an eye on.

TechCrunch

Google’s Purchase of Jaiku Raises New Privacy Issues

While Google’s Jaiku purchase may not seem like an earth-shaking event, some say it is the start of a truly interconnected world, where a chunk of our existence will migrate online.

New York Times