House looks to protect SMBs' interests online
The US House of Representatives Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Regulations, Healthcare and Trade held a hearing to discuss the state of the online advertising industry for small businesses last week.
“The long tail of the Internet advertisers are often overlooked, so it was important that Congress took the time to hear from them,” said Mike Zaneis, VP of public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), who attended.
The conversation also included a discussion about the recent search ad partnership between Google and Yahoo. Congressman Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX) discussed the possibility of regulation down the line, but most of the small business owners in attendance disagreed.
While neither Yahoo nor Google was in attendance, some small business owners commented on the new deal.
Rob Snell, co-owner of GunDogSupply.com, explained that he understood the new partnership to be beneficial to advertisers because using Yahoo to buy display ads will allow advertisers to search Google's inventory if Yahoo doesn't have any available.
Adam Kovacevich, senior manager of global communications and public affairs at Google, explained the company's position in an e-mail to DMNews. “We agree with the comments of the small business owners that the online space is highly competitive and still in its infancy,” Kovacevich said.
