Online Gift Shop

Companies that haven’t yet given Google TV Ads a shot should consider themselves presented with about 65 million new reasons to do so. Google TV Ads has connected with the Game Show Network and its 65 million viewers.

To a certain degree, this move makes more sense than other advertising tie-ups. Game shows often involve money and products that are available for purchase, after all, putting their viewers into a consumer-y frame of mind.

A post on Google’s Let’s Take it Offline blog also adds, “As the premier television network for games, GSN produces some of the most popular original casino and game show series on TV today. The typical demographic for GSN is pretty broad, with its audience consisting of adults in all ranges, who are interested in live game shows and interaction with TV shows.”

Anyway, as the picture below proves, this development follows a number of other impressive partnerships involving Google TV Ads and various networks. Despite the struggles and eventual demise of Google Audio Ads and Google Print Ads (with which Google TV Ads shared the “Offline” blog), Google TV Ads just keeps getting stronger.

Would-be users should know, “Once you upload your ad and set the CPM and budget, your ads will then be entered into the auction. After your ads air, you will have access to reports measuring the number of impressions, CPM and audience retention based on accurate set-top-box data.”

Yahoo Messenger Version 10 is now available in beta. New features include enhanced video calling, courtesy of GIPS, friend updates from Yahoo, Flickr, Twitter, and others through the new updates view, and improved language support.

GIPS has provided the underlying voice technology for Yahoo Messenger for the last three years. Now GIPS is providing its VideoEngine to add the video element to the messenger.

“With the launch of Yahoo! Messenger 10, we’re allowing people to instantly communicate with friends and family around the world through new interactive and social features like video calls,” says Dave Merriwether, senior director of Yahoo! Messenger. “The GIPS VideoEngine enables us to provide the Yahoo! Messenger community with the best video experience possible. Now people can enjoy full-screen, face-to-face chats with friends and family at no cost, in the familiar Yahoo! Messenger environment.”

“Yahoo! Messenger is the leading communication platform that provides people with the greatest choice to stay connected to one another through text IM, PC-based calling, mobile text messaging and now video calling,” says Emerick Woods, GIPS’ CEO. “”We’re proud to work with Yahoo! to deliver a truly differentiated high quality video experience for the hundreds of millions of people on Yahoo! Messenger around the world.”

On a semi-related note, Google just recently launched a new voice/video chat application for the iGoogle homepage.

Never again honey — and here’s a diamond to say sorry.

Every time British businessman Robert Charlton cheated on his wife, he bought her some extravagant jewelry to try to make amends. After 26 years of marriage, long-suffering Elizabeth Charlton had more than 40 glittering pieces.

Charlton’s infidelity cost him nearly 300,000 pounds ($492,400) it emerged last month, when his daughter auctioned off the late couple’s jewelry collection.

“He bought her a lot of things to keep her happy and to ease the pain of his many affairs,” said Clare Durham, a spokeswoman for Woolley & Wallis, the auction house that handled the sale. “I think everybody knew it was a fairly open secret.”

Over the course of his romances, Charlton, who died in 1974, bought his wife antique diamond earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces. One piece, a riviere necklace made up of 54 diamonds, was the most expensive item auctioned, fetching 50,000 pounds.

The riviere was once bought in the 1900s for around 400 pounds, the auction house said, a sum that would have made it extremely expensive when Charlton bought it in the 1960s.

“The big diamonds were Edwardian and Victorian so they were antique pieces when he bought them for her in the 60s and 70s,” said Durham.

Charlton’s daughter chose to auction a total of 43 pieces from the guilt-ridden collection after other family members declined to accept them. The family kept other pieces.

“He didn’t just buy her jewelry when he played away. He did buy her gifts for birthdays and Christmas and things like that. I don’t think he was that bad,” said Durham.
source: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE57H2GD20090818