Duck Duck Go launches shopping search filter to test advertising waters

Valley Forge-based Duck Duck Go has updated its snappy, no-frills search engine with the option to filter shopping results.

By typing a query and choosing between shopping, information and normal- mode, you can decide whether you’re looking to buy, looking for info or something in between.

“A top complaint about search engines is that you often have trouble finding real information about topics that have lots of shopping results,” Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg said in a statement. “We built this new feature to address that problem.”

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 38 percent of users say they are unaware that search results are a mix of search content and sponsored links.

Currently, Duck Duck Go displays no sponsored advertisements, but in an interview with Technically Philly last month, Founder and CEO Gabriel Weinberg said the company was planning to monetize the site with ads.
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Technically Philly will soon be introducing advertising, other monetization strategies

For four months, we’ve been writing, reporting and researching dutifully the technology and innovation communities in and around Philadelphia.

We want to do more.

To appease our devotion for transparency, we want to be the bearer of the news that in order to continue to grow our coverage, we will now begin pursuing monetization. We’ll continue sharing disclosures and conflicts should they arise and hope you’ll approach us with any concerns you may have.

This is no hobby of ours.

We are three professionally-trained and seriously-driven young journalists who want to develop a sustainable and impactful news coverage source for you, your city and this region.

We’re doing it already. When Google CEO and Princeton University-graduate Eric Schmidt gave the commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania, we asked the question and got his answer about the possibilities he thought Philly had to become a tech corridor. No other news source in this city of 1.5 million people reported when Philadelphia CIO Allan Frank pledged to work with Refresh Philly to reinvigorate Philadelphia’s connection to technology.

We’ll chase big city news when it affects our readers, on the Web or otherwise. Philadelphia Inquirer Publisher Brian Tierney told Fox 29 yesterday that the third-oldest newspaper in the country is going to add a paid content model to its Web site, but, of course, we told you about that three days earlier on Friday.

We want to be able to devote the time to make sure that coverage continues and only expands. We’ll need resources to do that.

So consider this the official declaration of the monetization of Technically Philly — something we hope to do slowly and judiciously to ensure we never deleteriously affect our maturing brand or turn off our growing readership. Still, sometime soon, you should begin to see advertisements, and we want to invite you to participate, as other profit strategies come online.

See our media kit here. For rates and further advertising information, contact us at advertising@technicallyphilly.com.

If you have any thoughts, let us hear them in the comments. Any more sensitive thoughts can be sent our way here.

Comcast Roundup: Two big Comcast fights end, new ad campaign and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.

Comcast settled two hotly contested fights with major content creators last week.

Comcast and the NFL Network settled their differences and inked a nine-year deal that will broadcast the football channel to more than two-thirds of Comcast subscribers, the New York Times reports.

The Media Memo at All Things Digital also reports that after Comcast’s squabble with Disney over Mickey’s joining Hulu last month, the two came together to announce that Disney-owned ESPN will offer its streaming video service to 17 million Comcast broadband subscribers.

Comcast’s growing lobbying budget, new advertising campaign and three other Comcast stories you need to read, after the jump.

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GPTMC, other urban destinations attract LGBT community online

Courting gay travelers is old hat for tourist agencies. What’s new is that now the courting is moving increasingly online.

In partnership with the the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp., Southwest Airlines announced earlier this week that it launched Southwest.com/gayphilly, considered the first airline landing page for a gay destination, as first reported by the Inquirer. The GPTMC is giving away six free trips to Philly in a contest that, while featured in print advertisements, is almost otherwise entirely being promoted online, housed at gophila.com/gayphilly.

It may the first so Web-heavy advertising blitz directed at the gay community by the GPTMC, but it is certainly not the firsT — insert mildly euphemistic pun on the City of Brotherly Love.

In November 2003, GPTMC decided the city’s culture, history, nightlife and dining, packaged with the famed gayborhood could make Philly a top-tier destination for the LGBTQ community. So born was the popular “Get your History Straight and your Nightlife Gay” promotional campaign.

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Welcome to Comcast Town

Have you seen Comcast Town, yet?

It is part of a new ad blitz from the Center City telecommunications giant that includes commercials, an interactive Web site, a Juno-esque design theme and, yes you guessed it, social networking.

The campaign was designed by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, who are not located in Philadelphia, but San Francisco.

See an entire collection of the ads on AdFreak, or catch the most played one and some more after the jump.

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