In addition to today’s Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for August 6, 2007:

Customer Reviews Increase Web Sales [eMarketer]

This isn’t really news to me. We’ve covered the benefit of customer reviews a number of times in the past. But I glad to see more online retailers moving in this direction. I, like many others, put more weight on what other customers say about a product or service than just about anything else. I know I’m much more likely to buy from a site that includes customer reviews. If you’re selling online and don’t have such a mechanism in place, imagine what you could be missing out on!

IAC Leaves DoubleClick for Atlas [ClickZ]

Yes… that would be the DoubleClick that Google is trying to buy. And yes… that would be the Atlas that Micrsoft is closing the deal on (aQuantive). IAC says the change has nothing to do with either Google or Microsoft’s purchase. But it’s still interesting. Less than 2 weeks ago Digg announced it was also dropping Google in favor of Microsoft advertising. And before that, it was Facebook. Are these just random, coincidental events that have nothing at all to do with one another? Are we starting to see some mass exodus away from Google? Or is Microsoft buying all of these clients with promises of guaranteed returns that Google can’t or won’t match?

Yahoo Adding Video to Flickr [Search Engine Journal]

Pretend for a moment that you’re Yahoo!: you’ve got Flickr - a top image destination. And you’ve got Yahoo! Video - a distant third in online video. What do you do to bolster your video offering? You add video hosting to your top image destination, of course! I’m not sure I like the mingling of services here. One of the great things about Flickr is its simplicity. Video isn’t as simple. And video players are notoriously bubbly and obnoxious. That being said, I think most folks will like this addition.

Google Testing Alternative AdSense Layouts [Search Engine Roundtable]

Two different layouts… two stories… both from SERoundtable. The first one deals with what appears to be a merging of a traditional AdSense ad and a link unit into a super-ad of sorts. In addition to the main contextual advertisement, users will see a number of simple text links to related terms (screenshot included). The second (and I think more interesting approach) is the “Show More” ad format being tested. The ads look pretty standard - save for a “Show More” link under the ad text (screenshot included). According to those who have experienced the ads first-hand, clicking the Show More link opens a new window with similar ads listed. Now I wonder how long it will take people to figure out that “Show More” = “More Ads”… and stop clicking it? But it’s interesting that Google is giving this a try. And who knows… maybe it’ll work!

Have a great night, folks!