Jennifer has posted that Microsoft have just sent out invitations to selected advertisers for adCenter – their contextual advertising program’s pilot program in the coming months.
She notes that the invitation indicates that ads will be primarily places upon MSN sites but that in using that word there is a chance that they might make it available for other publishers to run the ads (similar to AdSense and YPN).
This is one of the few indications to publishers that there is a chance of Microsoft heading in this direction sooner than later.
Gee it’s taking them a long time to get this rolled out, especially when you consider what is at stake for Microsoft and the size of the potential revenue stream in this market.
It is better than nothing. At least, they are waking up. THis move by Microsoft will create additional competion for Google & Yahoo which will ultimately help the Website owners who are interested in additional revenue stream. It will be interesting to watch this move. In the next few months, there will be lot of changes in stratigies to maintain the market share by Google & Yahoo. Let us wait & watch for better.
I saw this on Jensense as well, I think the glimmer is very, very small, so far all the signs would indicate that it would be unlikely at this stage, particularly given YPN’s general failure at making any serious inroads on Google. Remember though, MSN sites includes Spaces….this is where I’d think they’d eventually strike.
Darren,
TradeDoubler, a European affiliate management service, briefly advertised MSN AdCenter to affiliates on Tuesday. I applied, but the link was removed shortly after.
Nice…more competition between the three; MSN, Google, and Yahoo will give better rewards to publishers like me.