The Direct Marketing Association's annual conference took place last week in Las Vegas, with a general tenor of cau­tious optimism on the show floor and in conference speaker rooms. While the DMA declined to share exact attendance figures, it had expected 550 companies to exhibit.

DRTV agency InfoWorx has added in-house telemarketing to its roster of services. The company also offers infomercial TV production and media buying. Omaha, NE-based voice solution provider Prairie Interactive Messaging will provide the backend call centers.

Google this afternoon released its Q3 earnings during a conference call with investors. This quarter, which ended September 30, the leader in search market share made $1.35 billion or $4.24 per share. This represents a 26% increase from this point last year when the company made $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share.

Craig Newmark, founder of the classified ad listing and online community site Craigslist, said his "nerd perspective" informs everything he does. Newmark made his comments at this morning's DMA08 keynote speaker, where he worked the crowd with a remote-control rim shot, explaining that he has "ACS — attempted comedy syndrome."

KitchenAid, a division of Whirlpool Corporation World­wide, will launch a new DRTV campaign on November 3 to pro­mote its high-end stand mixer.

Mary Elizabeth Hurn discusses search marketing efforts for Vail Resorts' recently launched site, Snow.com, with executives from Vail Resorts and iCrossing.

Andrew Gordon has been elected chair of the Electronic Retailing Association's (ERA) Television Council. Currently, Gordon is president of Direct Impact Group and has been an active member of the council for over six years.

Facebook has integrated Microsoft's Live Search into its user interface. US Facebook users now have the option to search Facebook or the Web using Microsoft's offering, in the toolbar at the top of Facebook pages, without leaving the site.

Clash-Media, a performance-based digital marketing company, has launched the "Path Partnering" service to improve its clients' lead generation. This service will connect advertisers with publishers based on the relevance of the Web site's traffic.

As the proposed Google-Yahoo partnership moves ahead, Tim Armstrong, Google's president of advertising and commerce for North America, continued to stress that the search giant would not dictate its ad prices.