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eBay to Enter Contextual Ads Market

prostoalex writes "Reuters reports eBay is planning to roll out its own contextual ads network, thus claiming its stake in booming Internet advertising market. Currently both Google and Yahoo! run contextual ads programs (AdSense and Publisher Network, respectively) with MSN's AdCenter not open to publishers yet." From the article: "What goods appear in any particular advertisement will be determined by the keywords on that Web page, a technique known as contextual advertising. A sports Web site would feature links to sporting gear or memorabilia from eBay, for example. As listings change on eBay, advertising automatically changes on affiliated Web sites to reflect the new products or services for sale on eBay. Web site affiliates receive a cut of 40 percent to 70 percent of sales, depending on volumes."

8 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Riiight. by SEE · · Score: 5, Funny

    These is the company that buys "contextual ads" on Google that read:

    Misery
    Looking for Misery?
    Find exactly what you want today.
    www.eBay.com

    Agony
    Browse a huge selection now
    Find exactly what you want today
    www.eBay.com

    Loss
    Whatever you're looking for
    you can get it on eBay.
    www.eBay.com

    I'm sure a system they run will show the same understanding of the point of having contextual ads.

    1. Re:Riiight. by vux984 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Misery
      Looking for Misery?
      Find exactly what you want today.
      www.eBay.com


      Its been a while since I saw that excellent film; ebay might be a good place to pick it up cheap.

      Agony

      The perfume? I hadn't thought of looking on ebay; its hard to find in stores.

      Loss

      The memoir deconstructing a young man's response to his mother's death... by Wyatt Van Wendels... maybe ebay can beat Amazon.com's $15 price tag?

  2. Re:I Wish by icepick72 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I won't go back until [...] and b) get the bad remark against me removed

    You suck.
    (Are you coming back to Slashdot?)

  3. contextual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... as long as it is contextual, I don't care what they do in the privacy of their own home.

  4. Beer by mnemonic_ · · Score: 2, Informative

    Beer is good.

  5. We'll see how well these ads do. by purpledinoz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they're going to be implementing something similar to google's ads, then I think they might run into a little trouble. Unlike google, eBay web pages are quite busy, and a google-like non-flashy ads would be easily missed. Hopefully they won't put in those annoying ads that "float" on top of the web pages. Those are really annoying. I see them sometimes while I'm reading articles on some news sites.

  6. Hmm... not what it should have been by Firehed · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I thought, by the title, that they'd be introducing a way where people with websites could sell off ad space to the highest bidder. Seems like it would have been a much better thing. Browse by website content and traffic - ad buyers get a price and market they want, and the sellers get to maximize their cost per ad. All it would take to implement is about five seconds in their database to add an "advertisement space" category.

    --
    How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
  7. Meg, I'm sorry by Super+Dave+Osbourne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    but isn't the 400+ million you sold in stock in 2003/4 enough? As a former seller (and God what a life it has been after eBay's promises) and no-longer-buyer of eBay garbage I'm sooooo overly excited to hear that eBay is going to be bending over the buyer and seller again. This time with crap that has nothing to do with the Seller of the item at hand, but somebody else's shlock. I guess I'm getting really jaded with consumerism, and eBay's shotgun approach to marketing using other's paying pages to do it is why.