Open table is a website that is based on user experienced postings of restaurants throughout the nation that offer high-end, expensive entrees. Once someone has visited a restaurant, they will rate the restaurant on a variety of categories such as "ambience", "service", and how "romantic" it is. The restaurants that are on this website do not have to pay to get a posting, near do they have to pay to upkeep the site. While this type of advertising is nearly opinion, It can have much more bearing on an individual than a television ad or newspaper ad. The only difference between this user experienced advertising and traditional advertising is that the users could cast the restaurant in a bad light. I also can't help but think how many times employees or owners of restaurants have logged onto this site and rated their restaurant "outstanding" in all categories.

I found this website while searching for free educational material for a separate class. While this site may not tie into my research report of "internet advertising", I think it is very important. Academic Earth is a free site that anyone can sign up for. It offers free online video lectures from some of the most prestigous universities in the country (Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Princeton). The lecture topics range from Psychics to Psychology, and everything in between. The importance of this website is pretty obvious. The average Joe that can't afford college tuition can learn much of the same material for free that the wealthy and privileged are receiving for $100,000 a year.

I'm sure by now most college students have heard of chat roulette. Before reading on, I will warn everyone that before you click on the link, there may be some offensive material. Anyways, chat roulette is a website that allows people with webcams to speak through microphones, or type in a chat bar, with anyone in the world that has also has a webcam. There has been recent coverage by the media concerning the innapropriate material that some users have been filming. However perverted some users may be, chat roulette is an interesting new way to communicate with people via the web. There are two things about this website that I think are interesting. The first is that the site is run by a 17 year old in a European country. The fact that at any given time, there are over 30,000 people connected to the site makes this a potential goldmine for advertisers. The second thing I find interesting is that while the site is meant for communication, almost nobody uses it to speak to other individuals. It is mostly used to satisfy the curiousity and voyeuristic tendencines that lie within most of us. The average user will just click through random people without speaking to anyone. This says something about the way the internet may be breaking down communication in some aspects, instead of uplifting it

This website discusses some recent viral video advertisements on the internet. It shows why they work, and why viral video advertising was (in some cases) their only option to advertise the product.

This is a great website devoted to the theory of Guerrilla Marketing. It is hard to define Guerrilla Marketing/Advertising, but the basic concept is to market the brand in un-conventional ways, in an attempt to grab the attention of the viewer. This could be applied to outdoor, print, television or internet advertising. If you click the "articles" link at the top, it will discuss many different aspects of guerrilla marketing.

The new Google Wave application may be the next "big thing" in internet communication. Unfortunately, the best demo of Google Wave is over an hour long. This one also has a very good demonstration of its capabilities, however, it is to the script of "Pulp Fiction" which has MANY swear words.

This shows some of the most well written, thought out advertisements of the year. Videos like these are re-defining the term "viral", and steer away from the more traditional types of videos. The user does not care that these videos are ads because they are so captivating and entertaining.

This is not academic, but more of this one mans opinion. I can not use this for my report, however, it is a very good starting point, which could lead in directions for research.

Hilarious website with Penguins fan blogs, comments, and photoshopped images. The photoshop images as well as the witty writing amazes me sometime. Many metaphors, sarcastic undertones and obscure references.

I think this is an interesting and funny website. Although it is viewed by some as offensive or stereotypical, it still creates a huge amount of traffic (300,000 hits daily). The creator of the website (Christian Lander), uses this site as a social mirror for things he witnesses throughout everyday life.