The New Price Of A Web Ad: Free?

Here’s how hard it’s gotten to make money selling advertising on websites: Some industry experts think there may be more profit in giving them away for free.

That’s what a couple veterans of the online ad space tell Reuters. A story about Microsoft’s $6.2 billion write-down of aQuantive, the ad network it purchased five years ago, notes that the average rate charged for the sort of ads that aQuantive sells has fallen by about 15% in the last two years and more than 50% since 1998.

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Microsoft silently launches So.cl, its attempt at a social networking site

Microsoft has officially launched an “experimental” social networking site called So.cl, which combines facets of social networking, search, and media sharing with a user interface resembling Google+.

When we last heard about it, So.cl (pronounced “Social”) was being billed as an “experimental research project” and was only available to students studying information and design at the University of Washington, Syracuse University, and New York University. While the project is still billed as experimental, it’s now open to anyone who wants to give it a shot.

To get access to So.cl, you sign up using your Facebook or Windows Live ID. When you sign in for the first time, the site describes the experience as such:

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