Israel's Double Fusion was named "the most promising startup of 2006" last night at the TheMarker COM.Vention in Tel Aviv.

The three-day event, sponsored in cooperation with Orange, is being held at Tel Aviv's David Intercontinental Hotel.
 
Double Fusion places advertisements in interactive Internet games. By working with game developers from an early stage, the company can integrate advertisements at any point without impacting the speed of the game. The ads can be targeted based on geography or time.

Double Fusion beat out two other finalists: Approtect and Hiro Media.

The company's cofounder and CEO, Guy Bendov, won a trip to Redmond, Washington and an opportunity to present his company's technology at Microsoft's headquarters; hopefully, he will be invited to integrate Double Fusion's know-how into the giant company's software. In particular Double Fusion is interested in getting Microsoft's approval for using their technology on the Xbox 360.

Dr. Hillel Rom, CTO and cofounder of the not-yet-two-year-old firm, told TheMarker: "We are very proud and appreciate the judges' decision. Now we have to go work hard to meet expectations."

Bendov expects Double Fusion to become a central player in advertising in rich media within five years, including IP television and mobile media - in fact, in digital media in general.

Over 2,000 participants attended the conference yesterday. "Bubble" and "Google" were the most prominent buzzwords at the opening sessions, which centered around the international Internet market - its direction, business models and potential for growth. Today's discussions will focus on Israel's Internet community and on advertising.