MSN Launches Pay-Per-Click Search Ads

San writes "ZDNet is reporting that MSN has launched its first paid-search advertising application. The system will first be launched in Singapore and will be followed by France in September and a pilot run in the United States in October."

Comments

AdWords clone, but potential privacy issues?

[Sv-Manowar]

At first glance, this would appear to be a direct copy of Google's AdWords style keyword bidding on search result pages. However, whats more suspicious is how information on search users is being used to target the ads. If they choose to mine the profile data available to them through MSN passport (and this seems to be in line with their intentions, given that age and gender are already available to advertisers), Microsoft could try to exploit people's personal information to gain a targetting advantage over Google (at the expense of user's privacy..)

Re:AdWords clone, but potential privacy issues?

[spisska]

And Google could very well do the exact same thing with gmail accounts.

Google cannot do the same thing, since they do not collect this kind of information when you sign up for gmail. It's been a while since I got my gmail account, but I don't recall having to give them a single piece of information that I didn't want to (as opposed to Hotmail, which requires entries for things like age, gender, physical location, etc.)

If you took a good look at Hotmail user data (and nothing else) you'd probably be surprised how many 90+ year-old women in Albania are using the service. Google does not have this problem since they never intended any ridiculous implementation like MSN Passport.

Do you remember?

[Robbyboy]

Do you remember when developers actually developed software? It boggles my mind that the borg of all things software would still be patronized given the minimal amount of independent thought that comes out of Redmond, WA people would just get fed up and embrace open source.

Windows 98... "Look Johnny, long filenames" (Macintosh had been there, done that)

M$IE7 Beta... "Look Johnny, Tabbed Browsers" (FireFox had been there, done that)

MSN AdCenter... "Look Johnny, Pay per click advertising" (Google had been there, done that)

What further amazes me is that anything M$ does is still news. Why are the masses constantly amazed by the fact that M$ does not have to form independent thoughts and simply hijack everyone elses. Why not take that black hole of thought hovering over Redmond and channel it into something useful.

A Secure Microsoft Product "Look Johnny, A Secure M$ Product...Make a Wish"

Re:Do you remember?

[ScentCone]

It boggles my mind that the borg of all things software would still be patronized given the minimal amount of independent thought that comes out of Redmond, WA people would just get fed up and embrace open source.

So, when Google copies Yahoo, or Google copies MapQuest - and then makes their versions of things, whether improved or not - they don't deserve the same scorn? Or when a Linux distro goes to a lot of trouble to provide users with an interface shockingly similar to Windows, that's innovation? Not every new service has to be a brand spanking new innovation. Otherwise we wouldn't have multiple car manufacturers, musicians, architectural jobs, or any other overlapping producers.

What further amazes me is that anything M$ does is still news

Let's see - millions and millions of users, and a giant new marketplace for ads from both small and large businesses...? It's a shame you don't understand why that might be worth mentioning to an audience that deals, in one way or another, with some of those millions of people all over the world.