SEW reports on Ask’s long awaited contextual ad network:
Advertisers buying search ads in Ask.com’s Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) program will soon have the option of buying contextually-targeted ads on IAC-owned sites and third-party publishers.
The program will launch at the end of May on several IAC-owned properties, such as Match.com, Ticketmaster, Evite and Citysearch. Ads will also appear on a few trusted publisher sites, most likely starting with some of the 90 publishers that syndicate Ask.com search results and search ads. Mid-sized publishers are able to sign up for the program now, and a self-service platform for smaller publishers is expected later this year.
Ask.com is trying to differentiate its offering from AdSense by offering more control and transparency to both advertisers and publishers.