*Sigh*

I contact Fox Sports in order to see how we can get AT&T Uverse to add Fox Soccer Plus where all the rugby is shown (yes it is odd that the Soccer Plus channel has Rugby on it, but never mind) and having just visited the Uverse site as a customer, I get an ad encouraging me to sign up for the service. Check out the screenshot here [new window] that I also helpfully will post to the Fox folks.

Thanks Microsoft Advertising. Thanks AT&T – and other vendors who helped make it happen. The danger of putting ads on a website.

This is mostly a coincidence and/or just wasteful targeting – but the main thing that irks me is actually the little AdChoices icon in the ad. This indicates that this ad was “interest-targeted” (the new name for behavioral targeting) but silly me, expecting a page that tells me how it was targeted I get a generic page [new window] that tells me that Microsoft Advertising served it and how I can opt-out. How bout instead you let me delete whatever information that led me to get THIS ad served to me? Not possible.

Deja vu all over again – I’ve always been annoyed by telcos like Comcast and At&t sending me messages encouraging me to sign up for their service when I’m already a customer – and later realized obviously it might be cheaper for them to do that than to send it to only non-customers: but i really thought we could expect better online.

I received the email this morning from the CEO of Rubicon Project, Frank Addante – it looks like Rubicon is “sacrificing” millions of dollars of ad revenues by not competing with its partners. Yay! Thanks Rubicon (oh I kid the kids from the Southland!) -  we’ll see how this storyline develops. [also links into the questions about the future of ad networks we're having on Quora.com] I’m guessing it was pub relationships and some LA-based developers they are mostly buying. Though curious what the “complete platform” is: maybe it’s in the release I haven’t read yet …. Here’s the email:

NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: the Rubicon Project has acquired the Fox Audience Network (FAN)!

Greetings!

Today we are tremendously excited to announce that the Rubicon Project has acquired the Fox Audience Network (FAN), one of the Web’s most advanced advertising technology platforms, to significantly expand our team in the areas of product and engineering, and continue driving rapid revenue growth for our premium publishers. The acquisition also accelerates the Rubicon Project’s plan to deliver premium Web publishers like you a complete, end-to-end display advertising platform.

In addition to the acquisition news, we’ve achieved profitability significantly ahead of our plan, and raised $18MM in additional funding.

Click here to be directed to the press release with all the details. A couple of points to highlight:

• the Rubicon Project is not, and will not be, an ad network. We chose not to acquire the advertising sales team that FAN built, sacrificing many millions in annual revenue in so doing. Selling directly to the advertisers that your in-house sales team is reaching out to would put us in conflict with you, our customer, and we won’t do that;

• We are targeting a launch of the complete platform for Spring 2011. Stay tuned for more news on this, as well as forthcoming sneak peeks…

We have long believed publishers need a better choice. A choice that gives your business the technology, scale and data advantage it needs to compete in an ever-more complex marketplace. FAN’s technology team and assets combined with our financial position and market share mean the Rubicon Project is better poised than ever to offer you that choice. Which is why we say now, more than ever:

Power to the Publishers!

Frank Addante
CEO & Founder