Eventually the Rich Media Guidelines

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) last week announced that over 30 of the leading online publishers, representing 65% of total advertising inventory, are or plan to be in compliance with its voluntary Rich Media guidelines Version 2.0 for in-page units. Version 2.0 of the voluntary guidelines builds upon the success of the Universal Ad Package which was issued in April, 2003. The guidelines developed by the Rich Media Task Force are explained in the press release. In an article on MediaPost talking about the issue, it’s interesting to read the opinion of Nate Elliot, analyst at Jupiter Research who welcomes the standards but also says:

Yes, Mr Elliot is right. Everybody is talking about rich media, but it took a (internet) lifetime to regulate them. And now let’s see what happens in Europe. I hope European publishers will soon get together to come up with their guidelines, with the IAB UK hopefully leading the way. But rich media are becoming a huge business which implies a lot of different interests, which leaves no room for quick moves.