MSN Microsoft adCenter Out of the Box
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Written By Reprise Media | May 4, 2006 | Share This
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Microsoft’s search advertising product makes its official debut with a (slightly) new name, plans to enter a new country, and no more make-up traffic from Yahoo! Search Marketing. Now, anyone who wants to advertise with the re-branded Microsoft adCenter (nee MSN adCenter) can sign up at any time - at least in the U.S. And News.com adds toward the end of their report that Microsoft says it’ll acquire web analytics firm DeepMatrix, keeping an eye on future plans to add analytics features to adCenter.
Jen Slegg’s write-up on the Search Engine Watch Blog notes that adCenter will begin rolling out in the UK sometime this summer, around the same time Microsoft intends to start testing their contentAds contextual ad service. According to Slegg (this time posting on JenSense - busy day!), Microsoft will likely keep contentAds within MSN and the Microsoft Network at first.
Slegg is puzzled by the adCenter name change decision, and Danny Sullivan wryly comments that the “biggest surprise is that they didn’t call it Windows Live adCenter.” Who knows, but maybe they’re trying to distance themselves from MSN’s recent troubles; the unit has fallen into the red, and they’ve been leapfrogged by AOL in year-over-year ad growth, putting them solidly in fourth in terms of ad revenue (via Internet Outsider). Maybe they figure the new name is just what they need for a quick kick start.
Topics: Microsoft |