People are exposed to a variety of types of ads on a daily basis from television ads to online ads and more than half (55%) of Americans say they find current advertising to be interesting while 41 percent say it is not interesting, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive.

Younger adults and those with higher incomes are more likely to consider ads interesting. Sixty-six percent of adults aged 18-34 and 60 percent of adults aged 35-44 think ads are interesting as do 62 percent of Americans with a household income of $75,000 or more.

The opposite is true of adults 55 and older with 52 percent saying that current advertising is not interesting and 46 percent of those aged 45-54 and those who have a household income between $35,000 and $74, 999.

When buying products and/or services, over half of Americans (54%) say advertisements they had seen or heard were not influential when then made their last large purchase, with one-quarter (25%) saying they were not at all influential. One-third (35%) of Americans say the ads they saw or heard were influential.

Almost half (49%) of internet users say they have used online classified sites, compared with 22 percent of online adults who had done so in 2005.

On any given day about 9 percent of Internet users visit online classified sites, up from 4 percent in 2005.

Craigslist is by far the most used online classified website in the United States. In March 2009, classified sites averaged 53.8 million visitors, up from 7 percent in February. Craigslist had 42.2 million unique visitors in the month of March.

Craigslist has launched in over 500 cities in 50 different countries since April 2009.

The survey found that younger Internet audience are more interested in special offers, the entertainment factor and exclusive information within advertising.  For 45-54 year olds however, ads need to be more relevant and useful to make an impact.

Ads that offer discounts particularly appeal to 18 -35 year olds, but with the economy slowing, people of all ages are looking for ads that offer discounts.

The majority of respondents believed they had been exposed to more traditional forms of online advertising, such as sponsored links, banners and emails. These ads were most likely to have generated click-though rates.

The research found that newer forms of online advertising are gaining ground, specifically ads using rich media such as video and widgets. Facebook gifts and branded applications online are especially effective with 18-24 year olds – 29 percent had seen and sometimes interacted with an ad from either Facebook or branded content.

Email advertising is particularly effective for those 25 or older. Thirty-four percent of 25-34 year olds said they had seen and sometimes clicked on an ad in an email.

“The research has found that even though not all consumers click on ads, they are now fully acquainted with most forms of advertising online, with the majority having been exposed to most internet ad formats,” said Sorcha Proctor, Research Manager for IAB UK.

“It also highlights exactly what consumers what online: relevance, entertainment and value for money, and its important for brands to bear this in mind when planning their digital campaigns.”

These SMBs are blurring the lines between what’s advertising and what’s not. They consider whatever they spend on their own Web sites to be advertising, but that is a technology, design and telecommunication expense.

SMBs are less receptive to buying banner ads but are in favor of search engine advertising, online directory listings and streaming video.

The nation’s 14.6 million SMBs were responsible for more than $6.9 billion in locally generated, locally targeted interactive advertising in 2008- more than half of the U.S. total.

“The owners of small businesses would be well advised to understand these trends as they look to the Internet to help stimulate sales from both inside and outside their market,” the report states. “Many Internet marketing products are oversold and under perform.”

The ads will be matched via users browser based on the types of sites they visit and the pages they view. Google says it will use interest categories to show users more relevant text and display ads.

Google says it will allow users to select categories for ads they want to see. Users can also tell Google categories they don’t want to see ads for.

Google offers details on what it says are the three most important features of interest-based advertising.

• Transparency – We already clearly label most of the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and on YouTube. You can click on the labels to get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads. This year we will expand the range of ad formats and publishers that display labels that provide a way to learn more and make choices about Google’s ad serving.

• Choice – We have built a tool called Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser so that you can receive ads that are more interesting to you.

• Control – You can always opt out of the advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network here. To make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn’t deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), we have designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.

Interest-based advertising will be introduced over the next several months in beta form, and will expand later this year.

The Good Practice Principles aim to empower consumers and give them information and choices about behavioral advertising.

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and AOL all support the new principles. Online behavioral advertising is the growing practice of serving relevant ads to groups of anonymous Internet users, based on previous browsing activity.

New research by IAB found that 85 percent of consumers would rather have free content on the Internet with advertising on Web sites, than have to pay for access. Fifty percent of those Internet users said they would prefer to receive advertising that is relevant to them.

All companies that sign up to the Principles have six months to comply with three core commitments:

* Notice – a company collecting and using online data for behavioral advertising – such as a website publisher, ad network or technology company – must clearly inform a consumer that data is being collected and used for this purpose.

* Choice – a company collecting and using online data for behavioral advertising must provide a mechanism for users to decline behavioral advertising and where applicable seek a consumer’s consent (where data protection law or specific regulatory guidance applies).

* Education – a company collecting and using online data for behavioral advertising must provide consumers with clear and simple information about their use of data for this purpose and how users can decline.

“This is the industry’s last chance to get self-regulation right,” said Leslie Harris, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “The FTC report makes clear that the industry’s own efforts in this area have fallen short and must do more.”

The report discusses the potential benefits of behavioral advertising to consumers, including the free online content that is ad supported. It also discusses the privacy concerns surrounding behavioral advertising.

The FTC’s overall approach to consumer privacy seeks to balance the potential benefits of behavioral advertising while encouraging privacy protections and maintaining a competitive marketplace.

Because privacy policies posted on company Web sites are often long and difficult to understand, the report encourages firms to create effective disclosure information that is separate from their privacy policies.

The report calls on companies to provide reasonable security for any data they collect for behavioral advertising and to keep data only as long as it is needed to fulfill business or law enforcement needs.

The FTC said significant work remains and that it will continue the public dialogue regarding privacy issues raised by behavioral advertising. In the coming year it will evaluate self-regulatory programs and conduct investigations if needed, to determine any violations.

Search’s growth is projected at only 14.9 percent in 2009 and is not expected to see gains until 2012. The economy is shrinking all advertising spending growth. Search ad spending growth in the midteens in 2009 is still positive, especially compared with other ad formats and media.

eMarketer estimates that search ad spending passed $10 billion in 2008 and is expected to reach nearly $20 billion by the end of 2013. Search advertising’s share of total online ad spending reached 44 percent in the first half of 2008, up from 41 percent in the first half of 2007. In 2009, search is projected to account for almost 48 percent of the online advertising spend.

“Consumer behavior will reduce search spending growth to less than the 30% seen from 2005 to 2007,” said David Hallerman, senior analyst and author of the new report, “Search Ad Spending: Reactions to a Recession.”

“But at the same time, continued searching for pricing and products that fit into current needs will sustain growth that is still strong in comparison with other advertising methods,” he said.

The new report, “Improving Ad Performance Online” is the second in a series of OPA reports using Dynamic Logic’s MarketNorms database. The first study was conducted in July, 2008.

“The research has shown that a quality advertising environment delivers better results,” said OPA President Pam Horan. “Quality is proving to be a key point of differentiation during challenging economic times, increasing advertising performance relative to ad networks, portals, and overall MarketNorms.”

Since the first report in July, aided brand awareness score on OPA member sites have increased 38 percent, while scores on ad networks have decreased 19 percent.

Similarly, brand favorability scores for OPA member sites have risen 27 percent, while ad networks, portals and MarketNorms have dropped 29 percent, 17 percent and 6 percent respectively.

The new data also shows that younger audiences (18-34 years old) are estimated to be about twice as likely (106% better, on average) to form favorable opinions about advertised brands on OPA member sites than on portals and MarketNorms (83% better).

“”This data is particularly important because the current recession is the first since online advertising has become a mainstream reality,” said Horan.

“At a time when every advertiser is looking for the best return on their investment, a quality environment matters more than ever. While advertisers with tight budgets may consider the cheap alternative provided by ad networks, the adage ‘you get what you pay for’ is as true today as it was a hundred years ago.”

AdSense for Games is in beta and allows you to display video ads, image ads, or text ads within your online games to earn revenue.

On the Google AdSense Blog it reads,” You’ll be able to show these ads in placements you define, such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over.”

“Members of our AdWords team will sell your in-game ad placements directly to top brand advertisers, and you’ll also see contextually targeted text and image ads based on content and demographic information. In addition, you’ll be able to control the ads you see on your pages using our filtering options.”

Some of the publishers In Google’s network include Konami, mochimedia, Zynga, ArcadeTown, HeaveyGames and playfish.

Marketers include Sprint, Sony Pictures, and esurance.

Google says eligible publishers must have a minimum of 500,000 game plays per day and have 80 percent of their traffic from the U.S. or the U.K.

More than 25 percent of Internet users or about 200 million people play online games and the number grows 17 percent annually according to comScore.