Yahoo to Launch Blog Ad Network

Art Vanderlay writes "Yahoo is launching the much anticipated ad network for small Web publishers today, intended to strengthen its hand against rival Google, a source familiar with the plan told CNET. The service will undoubtedly turn up the heat in Yahoo and Google's ongoing rivalry to dominate Web advertising. Syndicated search revenue for Google was $630 million, of Google's $1.38 billion in revenue in the second quarter of 2005."

Comments

Microsoft won't be too far behind ...

[xmas2003]

Any bets on when the Redmond gang will offer their Ad network?

Re:Microsoft won't be too far behind ...

[ScentCone]

for Yahoo to launch so they can steal ideas, then develop their own

So, when MS does it, it's stealing. But when Yahoo does it (following Google), it's innovation? Or, when Google did it after Overture and Go2 and everyone else that had been in the game for years... what, they were just de-Eviling it? And, Google maps... was not one bit of it, conceptually or otherwise, derivative in any way from earlier offerings from MapQuest, and Yahoo?

I guarantee that Yahoo won't be advertising this new service as being "just like Google did it!" even though they're obviously going after similar niches, using something that will manifest itself in a similar way. Of course, this is slashdot, so everything's fine unless MS happens to also do it.

Google Owns Patent for This?

[lieumorrison]

Wasn't Google awarded the patent for this technology recently? http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/30/14 41249&tid=217

Re:Guess I'll be signing up

[b0r1s]

Probably for "test" clicking your own ads. It's happened before. That $0.07 really hurts Google's bottom line.

Why not both?

[DogDude]

Why not use both services? If I had a blog or something similar (ie: non-ecommerce), I'd but up an iframe for each of them, let them do their magic trying to match ads, and simply se which one paid the most. Or if they're close, why not just leave 'em both up? From what I understand, there's very little that the site showing the ads has to do to get them set up, so there's really nothing to lose using both (other than screen real estate, obviously).

Re:Why not both?

[TheAwfulTruth]

Somehow that doesn't really seem to sit well with the "do no evil" bit...

But maybe that's just me. Then entire AdSense BS stinks of evil already.

Now the real test i their content matching

[Serveert]

this is what differentiates adsense from everything else. The tech they acquired from applied semantics works very well as you can see by the success of adsense. It parses websites, figures out their meaning then finds corresponding ads. Not such an easy process.

Yahoo's beta of this showed that their way of doing this is lacking, hopefully they improved it.

Re:Formula for success

[enrico_suave]

" Microsoft and Yahoo's new formula for success on the web seems to be: Do whatever Google does!"

As much fun as it is to piss on yahoo as the "old and busted" and google as the "new hotness"... Yahoo has made some interesting forward thinking purchases lately... like flickr and Konfabulator

*shrug* YMMV, and I'm no yahoo apologist/fan boy... just saying not all that glitters is google.

e

www.fuckedgoogle.com reported it first

[googisgod]

http://www.fuckedgoogle.com/

Google's earnings are over-estimated now, and Yahoo's are underestimated.

Well..

[dotdan]

After reading the comment about how someone was booted from AdSense unjustly, Yahoo will have the upper hand. ANYONE who has been booted or denied by Google, or just plain doesn't like them, will instantly go to Yahoo. However, will there be sites with Google on the left and Yahoo on the right?

Perfect timing. Google Adsense can screw you over.

[l-ascorbic]

I have had Adsense running on my site for over a year now. Initially I didn't get many clicks at all. In fact I hadn't yet made the $100 minimum to get paid. However last week I redesigned my site and read through Google tips on ads optimisation. I changed the format, moved the ads around and generally tidied them up.

Sure enough, my clickthroughs jumped considerably. So much so, in fact, that I earned another $100 in about a week. This morning I got an email from Google stating that they'd disabled my account due to "Invalid clicks". I had not violated any of the terms: I hadn't clicked my own ads, I hadn't used bots, I hadn't offered incentives to anyone else to click them. All I'd done is follow their own optimisation tips.

I sent an email saying this and got another automated response, stating that their "proprietary algorithm" mean that they couldn't elaborate as to what these invalid clicks were, but they were nevertheless disabling my account and witholding all payment.

I spoke to a few of the users of my site, who said that yes, many of them had been clicking ads more. Some said that they'd gone on to buy things through these clicks. None had used bots or anything: they'd just clicked on the ads as any user might, because they were more noticable now and many of the targetted ads were amusing or interesting.

My reply to their second canned email has gone unanswered, and I'm left down the $200-$250 that was remaining in my account, and it seems I have been hosting Google's ads for over a year for free. It seems that I'm far from the only person to experience this arbitrary account cancellation:

• http://www.ypjain.com/anand/2005/07/google-adsense -nonsense.html
• http://www.markcarey.com/googleguy-says/archives/d iscuss-adsense-invalid-clicks-process.html
• http://info-x.co.uk/vfarch8361.htm
• http://www.trap17.com/index.php/google-adsense_t65 44.html

Take them to small claims court

[Anonymous Coward]

See what the minimum is in your district. Probably is at least 200. The judge will surely rule in your favor if google refuses to divulge *why* the canclled your account. Also if you are not located in california, you will probably win by default because they won't want to pay for a lawyer to fly out and show up.