The systems we put in place assumes we avoid customers as much as possible; now that customers can talk to each other, they are speaking to each other when they can’t speak a company directly.

Larry Kramer (Moderator)
Senior Adviser, Polaris Venture Partners

Elias Camahort Page
COO Blogher

Ben Lerer
Co-founder & CEO, Thrillist

Michelle Madhok
General Manager, NYMag.com

Thor Muller
Founder/CEO, GetSatisfaction

It seems to me, this panel, is really about how to produce and find relevant news and information, when there is so much content, that we’re overwhelmed.

How did each person on the panel get funding? An Entrepreneur needs to be optimistic.

Larry Kramer – had savings, stopped taking clients, develop new product.

ELISA Page – first BlogHer was done on credit cards. She asked herself? What’s the worst that could happen?

Michelle Madhok – I never raised any money. Woke up each day and asked herself “what can I do to make money, today”?

Ben Lerer – you can never have enough money. What we had is a voice that was unique and investors who understood it.

I just signed on as a Columnist for Entrepreneur.com and will be contributing to monthly articles and more frequent blog posts on Web Analytics, Social Media and Search Marketing/SEO.

I’m excited to have the regular opportunity to be writing for a larger audience and an exciting, well known brand, Entrepreneur Media Inc.

Certainly have been going to many Entrepreneural type events like Ultra Light Startups, The Hatchery, New York Tech Meetup to name a few.

Well… I told ya so in Google Entering In Game Advertising? …. almost two years ago the sale of AdScape to Google was announced (Google AdScape – Gooble buys AdScape for 24 Million) – and, that once Google bought AdScape, they’d eventually run AdWords and AdSense in our online games, the one’s our kids play and sometimes, the one’s we play.   Mashable has a post on it too, One More Place You’ll Find Google: Games

I don’t know that’s a bad thing – I mean, it was inevitable – but it also highlights that saturation of our attention – where can we go now where we’re not going to be “sold” to, or “advertised” at?  Church (ops, I don’t think they’re totally free of ads, either).  However, running Ads in Games has it’s own unique set of challenges that don’t have parallels in other forms of advertising media:

“… Casual games publishers can display video, image and text ads in their online offerings. They can also define placements “such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over,” according to the AdSense blog.

AdWords team members will help market in-game ad space to relevant advertisers — but publishers can use ad filters to yank ads they find inappropriate.

Getting the Ad to work with the Games they’re shown in, so as not to be totally a detractor, will be interesting – I can see how it can be done – but I’m wondering what a typical conversation of a Google Sales Rep selling these In Game Units are going to sound like.  Oh well, I’m sure we’ll hear that, soon enough.

Anyway – here’s what Google AdSense for Games looks like and here’s the writeup in MarketingVox about the launch of Google AdSense for Games.

And here’s a movie where the Ads appear, at :50 seconds in.

BTW, soon enough, you’ll see the reports on In Game Ads in Google Analytics, just like Radio and TV Ads are showing up, another prediction of mine from early 2007 – I was just about two years early.

Incidentally, it’s interesting that 3D Worlds wasn’t added, Code4Software’s  Ad-Soft offering is the closest thing to what Google is offering, but for Virtual Worlds.

Better to be early ….  than late, especially on predictions.