Within the last three years, Google has acquired YouTube and DoubleClick and has attempted to control part of Yahoo!'s search advertising business. Two of the deals have not raised antitrust concerns by competition authorities. I review these deals with a focus on consumer welfare. Consumers are...

We develop a duopoly model with advertising supported platforms and analyze incentives of a superior firm to license its advanced technologies to an inferior rival. We highlight the role of two technologies characteristic for media platforms: The technology to produce content and to place...

We propose a duopoly model of competition between internet search engines endowed with different technologies and study the effects of an agreement where the more advanced firm shares its technology with the inferior one. We show that the superior firm enters the agreement only if it results in...

This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of social media digital advertising, examining 474 journal articles published between 2000 and 2023. Utilizing R programming and VOSviewer software, it uncovers a rapidly expanding field centered on consumer behavior and brand engagement....

The phenomenon of paid search advertising has now become the most predominant form of online advertising in the marketing world. However, we have little understanding of the impact of search engine advertising on consumers' responses in the presence of organic listings of the same firms. In this...

Keyword auctions are another multi-billion dollar application of auctions after the celebrated eBay-like business-to-consumer auctions in electronic commerce. Inevitably, keyword auctions have recently gained attention among researchers. Questions regarding what (is keyword auction), why (we...

The use of search engines has become almost as important as e-mail as a primary online activity. Arguably, search engines are among the most important gatekeepers in today's digitally networked environment. Thus, it does not come as a surprise that the evolution of search technology and the...

On search keywords with trademarked terms, the brand owner (“focal brand”) and other relevant firms compete for consumers. For the focal brand, paid clicks have a direct substitute in the organic links below the paid ad(s). The proximity of this substitute depends on whether competing firms...

In sponsored search advertising, advertisers bid to be displayed in response to a keyword search. The operational activities associated with participating in an auction — submitting the bid and the ad copy, customizing bids and ad copies based various factors (such as the geographical region...

As sponsored search becomes increasingly important as an advertising medium for firms, search engines are exploring more advanced bidding and ranking mechanisms to increase their revenue from auctions for sponsored search advertising. For instance, Google, Yahoo! and Bing are experimenting with...