LONDON (AdAge.com) — U.K. furniture retailer Habitat has sparked consumer backlash and negative publicity for using the unrest in Iran to drive Twitterers to its website.

It's a tough time for the newspaper industry. As digital-media choices continue to grow and technology allows for better audience targeting, the need for mass-market advertising vehicles, such as print newspapers, continues to wane. However — and this is important — the need for quality journalism doesn't. And the need for advertisers to reach consumers in highly trusted journalistic environments doesn't either.

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Package-goods marketers tried — and largely rejected — e-commerce about a decade ago. But their interest has rekindled lately, and a novel start-up named Alice.com is betting they're ready to party again like it's 1999.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Microsoft and Mediabrands, the media division of Interpublic Group of Cos. that counts Microsoft as a major ad client, are collaborating to build a software system that marketers can use to track everything from search advertising and e-mail newsletters to CRM systems to TV buys in one place.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Google has spent a lot of time in the past few years trying to quell fears it's out to disintermediate advertising agencies. Now it's undertaking a major effort trying to educate them on all things digital.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Today Yahoo rolls out the first version of its self-serve ad product, My Display Ads, a bid to win over local advertisers and convert search advertisers to display.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Customer databases, which cull years of spending and behavioral information to try to boost conversion and revenue, have long been a staple for marketers in industries such as travel, hospitality, retail and financial. But what happens when a massive disruption — say, a meltdown of the economy — alters consumer behavior so dramatically that it renders historical data useless?

Today consumers are far more likely to seek out and, what's more, trust what they read on other sites rather than anything we put out. The reasons are both technological and sociological.

Tools don't matter, and the best ones get out of the way, allowing people to connect more easily and effectively. That was my big takeaway from last Friday's second-annual Blog Potomac.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Sacha Baron Cohen, or "Bruno," wants you to "freund" him on MySpace, or as he says as his Austrian alter ego, "MeinSpace."