MSN adCenter enters paid-listing testing
Link: MSN adCenter enters paid-listing testing
MSN is expected to announce tonight that the first stage of their online advertising and publishing network is undergoing live trials.
Known internally at Microsoft as “Moonshot”, the paid listings program is Microsoft’s answer to Gooogle AdWords, and is set to go live in France and Singapore, where markets are more tightly focussed for monitoring purposes.
Moonshot is the first stage in Microsoft’s MSN adCenter development, which intends to tap into Microsoft’s extensive metrics profiling of internet users and use.
Covered in more detail by Danny Sullivan in MSN To Launch Its Own Paid Listings Program, he describes how Microsoft plan to grant complete freedom of operation to advertisers, to advertise under their own targeting - whether it be based on time windows, gender groups, or other metrics that Microsoft can discern from its use of registered user information.
He also indicates that rather than abandon Google AdWords, or hurt Yahoo! Overture, advertisers will be looking to spend on all three advertising platforms.
Additionally, Microsoft are expected to develop the AdCenter project further into a similar scheme to AdSense publishing - which is an area that Yahoo! are already testing for their Overture program.
