Web measurement firm Comscore has acquired online ad verification service Adxpose for $22 million. Originally founded as Mpire in 2005, the Seattle-based startup switched from a widget advertising platform called WidgetBucks to an ad campaign measurement tool last year when it recapitalized with a $3 million infusion from DFJ and Ignition Partners. The $22 million purchase price is roughly equal to the $22.8 million total amount of venture capital poured into the company since 2005 (although, with the recap, somebody made money).

Adxpose focusses on “ad verification” and “ad safety.” Essentially, it tells advertisers if anyone actually saw their ad online (was the ad above the fold or below the fold on any given webpage and how many people actually scrolled down to look at it?), and in what context the ads were shown. For instance, most major brand advertisers don’t want their ads shown next to porn or other content not deemed to be “brand-safe.”

ComScore will fold the Adxpose technology into its Campaign Essentials product, and combine its knowledge of website demographics and traffic to give advertisers better campaign measurement tools. Comscore sees this acquisition as a key piece in its efforts to bridge online advertising measurement with TV and other media. There also are so many third-party ad networks in between the advertiser and the ultimate place where the ads are seen that more accountability is needed.

The problem with online display ads that this acquisition attempts to address is that measuring impressions or hits just isn’t good enough. Increasingly, advertisers are demanding that they pay only for the right kinds of impressions and they are auditing campaigns more thoroughly. The entire online ad industry is moving in this direction. It’s not about clicks and conversions, it’s about attention.

Comscore also just announce its quarterly earnings today. Revenues jumped 38 percent to $58 million, but reported a net loss of $8.2 million.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Facebook is testing a new version of the home page that displays a column titled “Happening Now”  listing recent actions of friends in the right sidebar where the “Upcoming Events” section usually is. The short Happening Now entries such as status updates, Likes, new friendships, posted links, and comments can be clicked to pop up a window in-line that shows the original wall story and all its associated Likes and comments.

Happening Now could give users a snapshot of more than 10 stories about friends before they even scroll beneath the fold of the news feed, decreasing the bounce rate. For now, though, Facebook says the ”test includes a small percentage of Facebook users,  just a fraction of a percent”.

An Abbreviated Feed Provides a Wider Breadth of Content

The Facebook news feed only has room to show a maximum of roughly five stories above the fold before users have to scroll to see more, and this number can dwindle as low as one or two in the case of posted links with lots of comments. Happening Now allows Facebook to display a much wider breadth of stories above the fold through an independently scrollable frame, increasing the likelihood users will see something that catches their eye, and decreasing the immediate bounce rate of the home page. It does this by abbreviating some stories such as posts of links by omitting feedback and the author’s description, so the stories bear resemblance to notifications.

Unlike Twitter’s stream, which this test looks similar to, Facebook doesn’t always show a new update at the top of the news feed, and the rich content can make it difficult to rapidly consume. In 2009, Facebook at one point altered the news feed to be purely real-time updates similar to Twitter, but moved back to its original algorithmic design after seeing a prolonged negative response from users.

As Facebook becomes a hub for so much of people’s social activity, many have probably gotten into the habit of quickly opening a Facebook tab in their browser, scanning for new notifications and interesting stories at the top of the news feed, and closing the tab if nothing hooks them.

Happening Now could ensnare these impulsive visitors by giving them instant access to relevant content, and encourage them to leave Likes and comments that trigger notifications for friends. These actions, as well as more complicated ones such as watching posted videos, can all be done from the in-line pop up. Facebook Ads that are traditionally shown in the right sidebar appear to be pushed above or below the new column. If the feature was rolled out, Upcoming Events would have to be moved somewhere, and Facebook would need to prevent redundant content from appearing side by side.

Facebook briefly tried out a different “Happening Now” on the Events home page in August, which showed people currently active Places checkins as well as events going on that day. The web version of Facebook doesn’t have a way to see an aggregated list of checkins by friends, so users must either sift through their news feed or access Facebook via a mobile site or app. If checkins can appear in the new Happening Now, the column could inform users that their friends are at a nearby cafe and they should considering meeting them before they get engrossed in the site.

The Twitter-esque Happening Now has the potential to offer a more concise stream of content than the news feed without requiring significant redesign that might shock users. It augments the news feed’s algorithmically sorted Top News and real-time Most Recent feeds with an abbreviated, scannable feed. Happening Now could help users stay closer connected to more friends without having to browse or scroll.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

Facebook has increased the number of tab applications that are visible above the fold in the navigation menu of Facebook Pages. It also now only allows Pages with more tabs installed than fit above the fold to reorder their tabs.

The changes will allow Pages to expose users to more tabs for promotions, email signups, games, and other functions. However, it will also require some Pages to add multiple apps it doesn’t need to be able to reorder the tabs it wants, increasing friction in the Page management process.

Facebook began the rollout of a major redesign of Pages in mid-February. This moved tab applications from a horizontal bar above the Page’s wall to a vertically stacked navigation menu beneath the profile picture.

The redesign made tab applications slightly less prominent, but provided more space for longer titles and potentially more tabs above the fold. Facebook only allowed six tabs above the fold, though — the same number as before.

Now Pages can take advantage of the additional vertical space, as there are now nine spots available above the fold. Pages can display up to nine tab apps. If they have more than nine installed, the first eight will be visible to users, along with a “More” button that reveals the rest of the installed apps.

To reorder tabs, Page admins can visit their Page and click the “More” button, then the “Edit” button, and can then drag and drop the tabs. This allows them to place the tab apps they want to receive the most traffic at the top of stack beneath the wall and info tabs that can’t be reordered. Tabs can be removed from this same “Edit” option, or through the full “Edit Page” admin interface.

However, if Pages don’t have more tabs than fit above the fold, their admins won’t have a “More” button and therefore can’t reorder their tabs. In order to gain this functionality, they must add enough tabs that they get a “More” button, reorder their tabs, and then remove the unwanted tabs.

The Facebook Page design and admin interface is rapidly evolving, so this friction in the reordering process may be removed soon. For now, Page admins should take advantage of the increased number of visible tab spaces by adding more apps, reorder their tabs to show the most important ones first, and then remove any unnecessary tabs.

To learn more about Facebook Page management best practices and access our walk-through and strategies for redesigned Pages, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s comprehensive guide to brand marketing on Facebook.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook