IBM Corp, in attempt to find a use for its recently-announced HotMedia Java so-called rich media technology, announced yesterday that two ad agencies have adopted it for banner ads and Yahoo Inc and Lycos Inc have agreed to support it on their portals. With the HotMedia toolkit, web advertisers can create small Java applets that provide such features of zooming, scrolling and animations without the use of a special server or a browser plug- in. The technology is now generally available and costs nothing for advertisers or creative agencies to use, but IBM is negotiating licensing deals with authoring tool companies for them to include the technology as an authoring option for which it will charge. To that end it is in talks with RealNetworks Inc and Narrative Communications Inc, purveyor of the Enliven web advertising tool, which IBM recognized as the leader in its field. Advertising networks DoubleClick Inc, 24/7, NetGravity and Engage Technologies have all agreed to serve up ads supporting HotMedia. The technology is already being incorporated into Macromedia Inc’s tools. HotMedia has already been pushed in the direction of e-commerce web sites to liven up their offerings when it was launched in beta form a month ago. The main benefit HotMedia brings to web ads, says IBM is that it enables them to be delivered to browsers in segments as users request them. For instance, the initial download would be around 5k, and the more the user clicks, the more animation, or information they get. And as it’s pure Java, only a browser that supports the language is required. IBM contrasts that with ads that are more intrusive and require larger downloads straightaway or those that require special plug-ins. IBM said also it will provide open APIs for companies that wish to extend HotMedia with additional features. IBM also announced at the start of the @ad-tech show in New York yesterday that it has pared down its online advertising agencies from 60 to six – having talked to about 134 agencies in total – in an effort to get more consistent branding across the entire web. The lucky six are Modem Media Poppe Tyson; Ogilvy Interactive; R/GA Interactive; Strategic Interactive Group; Studio Archetype and Think New Ideas Inc. The HotMedia assembly tool and applets are at http://software.ibm.com/net.media/ssd
