Recent Comment
Spotlight
- Reader Michael Megalli writes: It is difficult to engage in genuine conversations with the marketplace when you can't change the reality of how a company does business, what it sells, how it works with partners, etc. [go]
Recent Comments
- nmw: " So I guess when people used to type "map ..." [go]
- TS: " JG: altavista's openness may have benefi ..." [go]
- JG: " The other question (whether it is mor ..." [go]
- Tom Nocera: " First, my hat is off to whomever at Fede ..." [go]
- Ciaran: " A few years back Google started giving o ..." [go]
- prefabrik yapı: " çok teşekkürler john cok güzel bi yaklas ..." [go]
- Steve Rhodes: " Google did underwrite Nova in 2005/6. ..." [go]
- Joel Fugazzotto: " What a nice post! It's a reminder to us ..." [go]
- nmw: " OMG -- not YET another post! :O (the pr ..." [go]
- SorenG: " Works for me. Curious how often the Zapr ..." [go]
- nmw: " Yes, I have to admit -- we still ..." [go]
- John Battelle: " @michael - I think there is a difference ..." [go]
- Michael Cohn: " Don't you think there's a difference bet ..." [go]
- JG: " This is one point, JG, where I think ..." [go]
- pz: " Glad ya'll are out there to inform us of ..." [go]
- David Mullings: " I know that if someone created a fan pag ..." [go]
PERFECT FOR THAT PERSON WITH EVERYTHING
Order 'The Search'
Yup, it makes the perfect gift for that officemate or colleague who you thought had everything....including you! If you order here, I promise to sign it, assuming we can figure out the shipping...
You can also buy the audio version here.
Check my book page for more info.
Blogger's Rights
Top Posts
- The Database of Intentions (or how this all got started)
- From Pull to Point(or the first post where I riff on the "Point-To Economy")
- Google As Builder (or the point at which Google stopped being simply a search engine)
- On Google v. Yahoo
- TV and Search Merge
- On Sell Side Advertising
- Battelle Gets Searchstreams
- Search and Immortality
- Toward the Endemic (on endemic advertising)
More coming soon...
Active Topics
- 35 comments: WTF??!!! (04.17)
- 26 comments: Twitter. Oh God. (04.30)
- 16 comments: The Future of Search Series (05.08)
- 16 comments: The Music In Magazines (05.07)
- 14 comments: Google. Does. Not Market. Except When It Does. (05.15)
Monthly Archives
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
About John Battelle
Searchblog Newsletter
Enter email to subscribe to Searchblog's newsletter:
Calendar
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Syndicate
Powered by
October 18, 2005 8:50 PM
MSN AdCenter Gears Up
MSN's answer to Yahoo and Google's ad platform has been a long time coming, but they are finally gearing up here in the US (MSFT launched AdCenter in Singapore and France - an alpha of sorts - earlier in the year). Today marks AdCenter's pilot launch in the US - you can go here to sign up to be a charter advertiser (no guarantee they will take you...). Microsoft claims to already have 500 folks signed up (word of the recruitment leaked out a week or so ago and here is the site of one of them, JenSense), and I am not surprised. I am sure that advertisers will flock to a well-considered new avenue for search advertising.
No, the question is not "will advertisers want to test AdCenter?" And the question is also not "will Microsoft innovate in massively scaled advertising platforms?" - I think the clear answer there is yes. (Microsoft is offering audience targeting, for example, and what I have been told by many is far more detailed reporting). Advertisers will very much want to try out AdCenter. Why not? If it works, great! If it doesn't, no harm, no foul, it's CPC!
The real question, to my mind, is will Microsoft have enough traffic of good intent to satisfy advertisers' demand - or put another way, will Microsoft get to scale on the traffic side of the equation? To do so, it needs to enter the syndication business. Microsoft needs more than MSN Search traffic if it is going to compete. It has to learn to play nice with others - and partner with the long tail.
Yahoo has already made a play for the long tail with YPN, and Google is king of syndication with AdSense. For now, AdCenter is only available for MSN Search. But if Microsoft is going to truly compete, it has to compete for the rest of the web's inventory. Of course, it can get a big head start by stealing AOL from Google....either as an acquisition, or just as a deal. As I've said before, AOL was the deal that made Google, well, Google, and it was the deal that drove Overture to profitability. Microsoft has plenty of cash, and a very keen desire to win. This is what is fueling all sides in the AOL Poker game.
In any case, I certainly look forward to seeing how folks respond to Microsoft's entry into the field. And we'll all be keenly watching how Microsoft competes for traffic of good intent....
- Posted by John Battelle on October 18, 2005 8:50 PM
TrackBack
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference MSN AdCenter Gears Up:
» Time and attention from Silicon Valley Himalayan Expedition
Link: John Battelle's Searchblog: MSN AdCenter Gears Up. Battelle introduces us to Microsoft's new ad platform and recommends that Microsoft enter the syndication business quickly. He's right that Google is king of syndication with its AdSense program,... [Read More]
- Tracked on October 19, 2005 9:28 AM
» "The Search" an insiders response from Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing
The last chapter has not been written in the search game. Microsoft MSN Search is every bit as good as Google in terms of size, speed, and relevance. Microsoft has come from behind several times before. I wouldn't bet against them now. MSN Search is ju... [Read More]
- Tracked on October 19, 2005 5:12 PM
Comments
Yes, MSN will probably start an ad syndicate, since everybody else has one. But remember that ads on non-search sites are always going to be secondary and have dramatically lower ROI for most advertisers.
What MSN really needs is to incrase its market share of searches. The quality of their results are already almost as good as Google, but of course they need to be notably better to win. And they also need to work on other parts of their search user experience. The search box on search.msn.com continues to be too narrow, month after month (even though it's the correct width on the main www.msn.com page).
The last chapter has not been written in the search game. Microsoft MSN Search is every bit as good as Google in terms of size, speed, and relevance. Microsoft has come from behind several times before. I wouldn't bet against them now. MSN Search is just getting started.There are many more decisions to be made. There is a long history of "first movers" being eclipsed by "fast followers".
I wrote a blog on this subject. See the whole story here http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2005/10/the_search_an_i.html
Another good feature about adCenter is that you can target your ad to a specific age or gender group. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.
http://sem.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000633064085/
Within the next 48 hours, we'll be releasing our free newsletter for MSN adCenter beta testers. Stay tuned...
Leave a comment