Margins Check: Toyota’s YouTube ads, Ask.com quits search, and more

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
–Toyota is launching a new $4 million ad campaign through video-sharing Web site YouTube.com. The campaign features a variety of custom functions, including special algorithms built to find up-and-coming comedy videos, all as an attempt to advertise Toyota’s new Corolla. The move is notable as Toyota, a major U.S. advertiser, could eventually bring its marketing sites on the mobile space.
–Microsoft has begun passing out to testers a new version of its Internet Explorer Web browser. The company said the new browser would strictly adhere to Web page standards. As Microsoft works to expand its presence and influence on the Internet, such efforts likely will also turn up in mobile.
–Ask.com announced it is getting out of the Internet search game and, in a major overhaul, will become a destination for married women looking for help in managing their lives. The news serves to highlight Google’s massive and growing dominance in the online search market, and the troubles its challengers face in running up against the company. Google’s competitors in the mobile realm would do well to note Ask.com’s fate.