Michael Wong

Google Introduces Pay Per Click Banner Ads

Google has introduced Google Image Ads to its Google AdWords and Google AdSense advertising program. Image ads -- better known as banner ads -- allow AdWords advertisers to place graphical ads - in addition to text ads - and uses existing AdWords technology to target images based on keywords and phrases. AdSense web publishers will have the option of running image ads on their web pages, and can benefit from the increased revenue potential of targeted, graphical ads. Google image ads are currently in beta and are available in 4 major formats: 468x60, 728x90, 120x600, and 300x250 pixels; and to all advertisers in multiple languages and over 250 countries.

Google Launches Regional and Local AdWords Targeting

Google launches regional and local targeting options for its AdWords program. Advertisers can choose country-level targeting or narrow their focus to showing ads to people searching for results in regional areas, or areas they define. Advertisers can indicate the area by choosing a point and a surrounding radius of 20 or more miles or by picking points to define a border. The AdWords system analyzes a searcher's query to establish what region that person is searching for. The system may also take note of the person's Internet Protocol (IP) address to see where he or she is searching from.

Google Changes AdWords' Trademark Policy

Google has changed the trademark-related guidelines for its AdWords program; it will now allow U.S. and Canadian advertisers to use others' trademarks as keywords. According to Google's trademark-complaint policy, updated late last week, the company will still block the use of trademarked terms in ad text when trademarks owners complain. Outside the U.S. and Canada, Google will ensure neither keywords nor ad text use trademarked terms. [Full story: Google Shifts Trademark Policy - ClickZ]

Report: Paid Search Advertising Growth to Slow in 2004

EMarketer reports that U.S. spending on paid search advertising rose to about $2.06 billion last year, up 123% from $923 million in 2002, but will rise more slowly this year, about 23%, to over $2.5 billion. It figures search advertising will rise to about $3 billion next year, but then face sharper growth later in the decade, due to a surge in local search advertising. [Full story: Search engine marketing to grow at slower pace, study says - Internet Retailer]

FindWhat Signs Amended Merger Agreement With Espotting

US-based FindWhat.com announced today the signing of an amended agreement to merge with privately-owned, European-based Espotting Media Inc. The combined company is expected to offer paid listings to 12 countries on three continents, and have relationships with over 100,000 online businesses globally.

Overture to Separate Content Match Keywords

Later this month, Overture will let you bid separately on Content Match keywords, seperating them from Pay-for-Performance bids on the same terms. At the same time, Overture are phasing out the 20% discount launched last June. Overture have also officially added Yahoo! as a distribution partner for Content Match listings. The ads can be found on a number of Yahoo! sections, including Autos, Entertainment, Finance, Games, Groups, Launch, Maps, News, Real Estate, Shopping, Sports, Travel and Weather.

Ah-ha.com Becomes Enhance Interactive

Ah-ha.com relaunch as Enhance Interactive. Same people. Same business address. Same telephone numbers. Just a new name. [Full story: Enhance Interactive FAQ - Enhance Interactive]

RIP: LookSmart UK

LookSmart told its UK advertisers that it would cease operations there next month. The move comes as LookSmart copes with the impending loss of its key distribution deal with Microsoft, whose MSN site carried LookSmart's paid inclusion listings. In total, Microsoft accounted for about two thirds of LookSmart's business. Their partnership will end on Jan. 15. LookSmart UK, whose customers mostly relied on it for listings on MSN UK, will cease operations the same day. [Full story: LookSmart to Close UK Operations - DMNews]

Google & Overture Stop Unlicensed Online Pharmacy Ads

In just over a month, both major paid search providers Overture and Google have reacted to pressure to drop ads for unlicensed online pharmacies in the United States. But while the ads will be gone, the access to sites selling prescription medicines without proper approval will remain virtually unchanged. [Full story: Google, Overture Limit Pharmacy Ads -- But Not In Free Listings - Search Engine Watch]

LookSmart Drops LookListings Fees for the Holidays

LookSmart are running a special promotion whereby you can add new and update existing LookListings listings without having to pay the standard $29 fee for new listings, and $19 fee for listing updates. If you've been meaning to add or update your listings, this is a good time to do it for free. [Full story: No LookListings Fees For The Holidays - LookSmart]

Yahoo! Europe Dumps Espotting for Overture

Yahoo replaced its Espotting paid listings results in five European markets with those from newly acquired Overture Services on Friday. The move, expected after Yahoo finalized its purchase of Overture three weeks before, puts Overture's paid search listings on Yahoo sites in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Italy, Spain, France and Germany. Overture plans to launch operations in Scandinavia soon. [Full story: Yahoo Adds Overture Listings in Europe - DMNews]

Google to Buy Sprinks

Primedia announced today that it has reached a search and contextual advertising agreement with Google Inc. that includes a four-year distribution and revenue sharing agreement for Primedia's About.com as well as the sale of its Sprinks unit to Google. Sprinks is the pay per click advertising network which serves About.com and numerous third party distribution partners. The deal extends the reach of Google's base of more than 150,000 advertisers to the targeted audiences served by About.com's 450 topic-specific Guide Sites that cover more than 10,000 topics and the CMMG 127 targeted magazine-related sites. [Press release: PRIMEDIA's About Links With Google for Targeted Advertising - PR Newswire]

Google AdWords Unveils U.S. State & Regional Targeting

Google has just unveiled a "Regional Targeting" feature for its AdWords program. Now instead of specifying only the countries where your ads will appear, you can also choose individual states and regions as well. For example, if you set your regional targeting preferences to the San Francisco-Bay Area, users based in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Oakland will see your ads; users outside this area will not. You can target your ads to over 200 state or regional areas within the United States. The regional targeting system works by mapping anonymous IP addresses of browsers to the 210 Designated Marketing Areas (DMARs) in the United States. Google AdWords regional targeting follows the Designated Market Areas (DMAs) geographic market design, first created by the A.C. Nielsen Company as a way to define television markets. DMAs, composed of counties or split counties, are updated annually based on historical television viewing patterns. Every county/split county in the United States is assigned exclusively to one DMA. Right now, you can target your ads to the state or region level, which often includes surrounding cities or suburbs. Google are working to provide more precise targeting options, such as targeting by city. [Full story: Google AdWords FAQ: Regional Targeting - Google]

Ah-ha Increases Minimum Bid to 3 Cents

Pay per click search engine, Ah-ha.com, is establishing a minimum bid of $0.03 for all paid keyword listings effective December 1st, 2003. On December 1st, all new bids and bid changes must be at least $0.03. At that time, $0.01 and $0.02 listings are "grandfathered," meaning that those listings will still be active but any bid price changes must be at or above $0.03. If you have new keywords that you would like to lock in under $0.03, you must do so by November 30th, 2003. The Ah-ha.com partner network generates more than 1 billion monthly search queries. According to Ah-ha, the top 3 listings account for 78% of all click-throughs.

MSN Extends Overture Contract to 2005

Overture Services will provide paid search listing to Microsoft's MSN network in the United States and United Kingdom through June 2005. The signing douses speculation that Microsoft would look elsewhere for paid search services, rather than strengthen ties with Overture, which recently became a Yahoo! subsidiary. Portions of the existing Overture contract, which include the MSN Web site and search pane, were due to expire in December, while others would have stretched another year. [Full story: Overture Locks in MSN - Internet News]

LookSmart ReLaunches Sponsorsed Listings to Take on Overture & Google

LookSmart has relaunched its Sponsored Listings program using a new pay per click model. Unlike its paid-inclusion LookListings program where bids were fixed, Sponsored Listings has no such bid cap. The higher a bid, the higher a listing will rank. Sponsored Listings will be distributed on LookSmart, CNET, Road Runner, InfoSpace, DogPile, Excite, and Mamma. LookSmart hopes to win distribution partners from rivals Overture and Google with the new program. [Full story: LookSmart Sponsored Listings To Take On Google & Overture - Search Engine Watch]

Overture Launches in Austria & Switzerland

Overture today announced the launch of operations in Austria and Switzerland. It has signed search distribution agreements with Tiscali, GMX and Abacho in both markets as well as Lycos in Switzerland. [Press release: Overture Launches in Austria and Switzerland - Overture]

Terra Lycos to Add Google AdSense Ads to its U.S. Properties

Terra Lycos said Tuesday that it has reached a multiyear agreement with Google to generate ads for a number of its sites with the Google AdSense program. Terra Lycos site HotBot has already been employing the Google search tools for roughly one year. Under the deal, Google will provide AdSense-derived advertising to several of Terra Lycos' U.S. properties, including Angelfire, Lycos, Matchmaker, Tripod and Wired News. [Full story: Google to power Terra Lycos U.S. ads - CNET News]

MSN Expands Overture Ads

MSN Search has rolled out a new format for showing its Overture listings. Previously MSN displayed a select number of Overture listings in the "Sponsored Sites" section of its search results. Now MSN is embracing more ads Overture has to offer, displaying three Overture listings under the "Sponsored Sites" section in the main search results, plus an additional five listings in a new box along the right-hand side of the screen. So now the top eight Overture bids should appear in MSN search results. [Full story: MSN Expands Overture Ads - Search Engine Watch]

FindWhat Renegotiating Espotting Merger

Pay per click company FindWhat is renegotiating its agreement to buy Espotting after it found problems with the company's finances. FindWhat said it is looking to lower the purchase price and change other parts of the merger agreement in light of its findings, or it might walk away from the deal. According to FindWhat, its post-merger examination of Espotting's books turned up some surprises regarding Espotting's purported profitability and projected financials. FindWhat said it is working with Espotting to get its results in conformity with U.S. accounting standards. [Full story: FindWhat.com Finds Skeletons in Espotting's Closet - Internet News]

Overture Expands Into Spain

Overture Services today announced it has launched in Spain. At launch, Overture's Spanish distribution partners include highly trafficked sites such as MSN; Tiscali; Lycos; Excite; Wanadoo; and Ya, a Spanish Internet Service Provider. Through these partnerships, Overture Spain reaches 71 percent of Spanish Internet users. As previously announced, Overture expects to expand into Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Australia before the end of the year. Overture has existing marketplaces in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea. [Press release: Overture Launches in Spain - Overture]

FindWhat to Acquire Miva Merchant Software

In a departure from the frantic mergers and acquisition of search engine providers this year, FindWhat has announced plans to acquire Miva Corp., for $5.5 million in cash and stock, plus about $2.5 million in assumed debt. Miva is best known for its Miva Merchant software, which allows online merchants to create and manage their web storefronts. Currently Miva has more than 70,000 registered users. [Full story: Findwhat.com plans to acquire Miva Corp. - News-Press]

Overture Research Enters Google Labs' Domain

Overture has unveiled Overture Research, a new web site that rivals Google Labs. In much the same way that Google Labs showcases a few of Google's favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time, Overture Research showcases some of Overture's research projects, such as Cluster Graphing and Local Search.

Overture to Introduce New Ad Features

Overture is to unleash a number of new tools and features this weekend. The new features include broad and phrase match, exclude keywords, a listing on/off button that lets you advertisers pause individual listings, conversion counter, an account performance tracking tool, and intraday reporting, which updates account statistics several times a day. But even with these new features, Overture is still playing catch up with Google AdWords.

Ebook Review: Google Cash

I've just added a review of a Google Cash, by Chris Carpenter, to my Mike's Marketing Tools web site. The downloadable ebook is a self help guide on how to make money by promoting affiliate programs via pay per click search engines, such as Google AdWords and Overture. [Full story: Google Cash - Mike's Marketing Tools]

Yahoo! to Buy Overture for $1.6 Billion

In April I posed the question "Yahoo! Planning to Acquire Overture?" The question has just been answered today. I must say I am still stunned by the news--Yahoo! and Overture Services today announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which Yahoo! will acquire Overture. The combined companies expect to be able to take advantage of a number of revenue synergies by expanding marketing opportunities on Yahoo!'s network through; (1) expand Pay-for-Performance search faster and more cost effectively into vertical properties, such as shopping, travel, and yellow pages, (2) integrate contextual advertising throughout Yahoo!'s network, including properties such as in sports, real estate and autos, and (3) leverage Overture's efficient, scalable marketplace by offering its 88,000 advertisers, the majority of which are small- and medium-sized businesses, the ability to get online, sell online and promote online by purchasing a range of additional Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Store and Yahoo! Web Hosting. [Press release: Yahoo! to Acquire Overture - Overture]

Overture Extends MSN Deals Overseas

Overture Services said Monday that it lengthened its distribution deals with Microsoft's Web portal MSN in several international territories including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and South Korea through December 2004. Previously, the two companies's agreement ended in 2003. In addition, Overture will display ads via MSN Search and the MSN Web site in Italy, where Overture just launched. It also plans to sign deals with MSN for Spain, the Netherlands and areas in Scandinavia by the end of this year.[Full story: Overture broadens MSN deal - CNET News]

Sprinks' Ads to Appear on MSNBC.com

Paid listings provider Sprinks and MSNBC.com announced a deal Monday for Sprinks contextual advertising links to appear on MSNBC.com for the next nine months. Visitors to MSNBC.com sections, including travel, health, technology, sports, business and living can see up to three paid listings, from Sprinks' pool of 15,000 advertisers, at the bottom of the page under the heading "Sponsored Sites." Unlike Google and Overture, Sprinks does not scan content pages to determine the appropriate ad, instead mapping the content page to over 1,000 categories. [Full story: Sprinks Inks MSNBC.com Content-Ad Deal - Internet News]

LookSmart Introduces New LookListing System & Pricing Structure

LookSmart have introduced a new version of their LookListing service by allowing their small business customers take advantage of features previously only available to LookSmart's large advertisers. This allows small business advertisers to generate even more click throughs than before. New LookListings has a new pricing structure. Advertisers' cost per click (CPC) rates are pre-set and determined by the category of their business. All existing Small Business Listings customers still pay $0.15 CPC for the first 5,000 clicks each month. Category CPCs apply to clicks over 5,000 within a monthly billing period. The prices range from $0.23 for auto, books, CDs, auctions, affiliate malls and coupon sites, to $0.75 for popular topics such as credit/bad debt, online gaming, finance/insurance, and communications/internet hosting. [Full story: Introducing new LookListings - LookSmart]

Overture to Launch Content Match

Overture will launch Content Match on June 27. Content Match is a contextually targeted ads system that works by displaying your Overture listings when Internet users are viewing related content on Overture partner pages. To encourage advertising via Content Match, Overture will discount all Content Match click charges in the U.S. marketplace by 20% for 90 days, through September 24, 2003. [Full story: Get More Targeted Leads with Content Match - Overture]

Espotting Announces Plans to Merge With FindWhat.com

Espotting Media Inc. announced today an agreement to merge with FindWhat.com. At FindWhat.com's closing share price on June 17, 2003, the transaction values Espotting at $163 million (£97 million / Euro 138 million). The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2003, subject to customary closing conditions. Espotting was formed in February 2000, and launched its service in the UK in September of that year. Over the last 18 months, Espotting has launched in an additional nine markets across Europe and currently covers the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, and Switzerland. Espotting delivers 100% accountable and cost-effective advertising to over 16,000 clients. Both FindWhat.com and Espotting distribute their advertisements through their respective networks. Combined, they power 2.25 billion queries per month.

DealTime Lowers Minimum Bid In Its Priciest Categories

Comparison shopping engine DealTime lowered its minimum bid in its priciest categories - computers, office and consumer electronics - to 30 cents. In DealTime's 17 other categories, the minimum bid has fallen to 5 cents. Product categories had a wide range of minimum bids, from 25 cents for software to 15 cents for furniture. Its Merchant Network currently has more than 2,200 retailers. In addition to its destination site, DealTime listings appear on the search pages of Excite and AltaVista. [Full story: DealTime Lowers Minimum Bid - Internet News]

Espotting Ads to Appear on Mamma & Euroseek

Pay-per-click advertising network Espotting has won several new deals with European search firms, Mamma.com and Euroseek. The deal with Mamma.com will see Espotting provide the top six most relevant commercial listings to Mamma.com's European user base. A separate deal with European-focused search engine Euroseek, will see Espotting search results and targeted content integrated across all channels and directories in Euroseek's eight European countries and languages.

Google AdWords to Appear in Lycos Europe Properties

Google signed a deal with Lycos Europe to distribute its Content-Targeted AdWords listings on the portal's member-generated Web pages in eight European countries. The contextual ads will appear on a total of four million pages of Lycos Tripod in the United Kingdom and Germany, and will roll out to France next month. Denmark, Italy, Spain and Sweden follow in August. The ads appear in skyscraper placements on Tripod pages, displaying four paid listings on the right side of the page targeted by both country and language. [Full story: Google, Lycos Europe Ink Content-Ad Deal - Internet News]

ValueClick Acquires Pay Per Click Search Engine, Search123

ValueClick Inc., which operates an ad network, today announced that it has acquired pay-per-click search engine Search123.com for about $5 million in cash and fees, marking further consolidation in the search engine industry. Under the terms of the agreement, ValueClick paid approximately $3.3 million in cash plus transaction costs and certain liabilities. This transaction was structured as a merger, with Search123 surviving as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ValueClick following the transaction--Who's next?

Sprinks' Ads to Appear on AOL Properties

Sprinks announced on Monday a multiyear deal with America Online for its contextual advertising links to appear on Netscape, CompuServe and AOL Instant Messenger content pages. The deal places ContentSprinks text ads on a variety of sections within both the Netscape and CompuServe portals, including in the sports, news, television and celebrities sections, as well as on their home pages. On Netscape, a Sprinks listing appears in a "Sponsored Link of the Day" heading on the homepage, and three listings appear on the homepages of certain sections. Text listings will also appear on the AIM Today homepage. [Full story: Sprinks Inks Content-Ad Deal with AOL Properties - Internet News]

Google Bucks Trend By Lowering All AdWords Minimum Bid to 5 Cents

Google has lowered the minimum price of all keywords in its AdWords program to 5 cents per click. Google hopes to entice more advertisers to try the service. This is a surprising move considering that Google's closest rivals, Overture and FindWhat, recently upped their minimum bids to 10 cents per click. Most keywords on Google command far above the 5 cents minimum, with industry analysts estimating that AdWords commands near or over the average of 37 cents per click that Overture reported last quarter. [Full story: Google Reduces Minimum Bid on Some Keywords - Internet News]

Overture Launches in Italy

Overture today announced it has launched its Pay-For-Performance search service in Italy, building on the company's growing global presence, which includes its non-U.S. business headquarters in Ireland and operations in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea. A multi-lingual editorial team carefully screens ad listings before they are distributed to the company's Italian partners, which include Internet Service Provider (ISP) Tiscali Italy, as well as Lycos Europe and Excite. In addition, through the recent acquisition of AltaVista, Overture will soon begin serving its Pay-For-Performance results to AltaVista Italy. [Press release: Overture Launches in Italy; European Expansion Continues With The Addition of Company's Sixth International Territory - Overture Services]

Study Reveals Overture Generates 99.8% More Revenue & 30% More Sales Than Google AdWords

Did you know almost 78 percent of Google's click-throughs to e-commerce sites comes from Google.com's algorithmic results, not from its paid search listings? In September 2002, independent market research firm comScore gathered data on users who clicked on Overture and Google paid search listings across 5,000 participating e-commerce sites. The key findings were Overture ads produced a conversion ratio of 2.6 percent, generating $2,024 per 1,000 click throughs. While Google AdWords ads produced a 2 percent conversion ratio, resulting in $1,013 per 1,000 click throughs. According to the comScore study, Overture ads generated almost double the average revenue and 30 percent more sales as 1,000 clicks from Google AdWords ads. [Full story: Overture Beats Google with Superior Results, Listing Control and Service - Overture Services]

Overture Launches in South Korea

Overture Services, today announced that it has launched its Pay-For-Performance search service in South Korea, having already sewn up 92 percent of the market. South Korea has more than 26 million Internet users, according to Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication. Additionally, more than 10 million South Korean households have access to high-speed Internet connections. South Korea is the first of several new international territories in which Overture plans to launch its commercial search service during the remainder of 2003. As previously announced, Overture expects to expand into Italy in the second quarter, followed by Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Scandinavia before the end of the year. Overture has existing operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. [Press release: Overture Launches in South Korea - Overture Services]

FindWhat to Increase Minimum Bid Price to 5 Cents

Paid listings company FindWhat.com announced Thursday that it would raise its minimum bid price for keywords from 1 cent to 5 cents. This follows the lead of industry leader Overture Services, which recently upped its own minimum bid from 5 to 10 cents. The increase goes into effect September 1, 2003. FindWhat will allow current advertisers to lock in 1 to 4 cents bids before that date. Plus advertisers will be able to change ad text, descriptions and links without penalty. [Full story: FindWhat Raises Bid Price - Internet News]

FindWhat Launches AutoBid Keyword Bid Optimization Tool

Better late than never--Findwhat.com today announced the introduction of AutoBid, a new tool allowing its advertisers to automatically optimize their keyword bids. Advertisers can indicate that they want AutoBid for a particular keyword and then input the maximum bid price that they are willing to pay for a click-through on their keyword. AutoBid then automatically manages the keyword bid to obtain the best position possible within the FindWhat.com results, based on that maximum bid chosen. Bid gaps are eliminated as advertisers pay only one penny more than the next most competitive bid.

Overture to Enter 7 New International Markets in 2003

Overture Services today announced that it has expanded its European headquarters in Ireland, initiating its previously announced plan to enter at least seven new markets across Europe and Asia in 2003. Overture will continue its international growth later this month when the company launches its commercial search service in South Korea. In addition, Overture plans to expand into Italy later in the second quarter, followed by Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Scandinavia before the end of the year. [Press release: Overture Kicks Off 2003 International Expansion; New Search Services Center in Ireland Strengthens Company's Market Leadership Position - Overture]

Sprinks' Ads to Appear on BURST! Network

BURST! Media, an ad network that sells advertising for more than 2,000 websites, has inked an agreement with Sprinks - one of the top ranked, but somewhat lesser known paid search providers - for target sponsored links to run across a broad spectrum of sites across the Burst ad network. The deal goes into effect today. Sprinks has been in the sponsored search business for about two years, originally conceived as Primedia-owned About.com's in-house search provider and expanded to compete with the likes of industry leaders Google and Overture.

Call for Office of Fair Trading Inquiry into Search Listing Price Hikes

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has been called on to investigate the search marketing sector after a second major player doubled the minimum price of buying a keyword on its network. When Overture raised its minimum bid price from 5p to 10p in February, rival Espotting said it wouldn't follow suit. But Espotting also raised its minimum bid price to 10p this week. Now there have been complaints to the Government that Overture and Espotting are abusing their dominant positions. Lopa Patel, editor at Asian lifestyle portal Redhotcurry, complained to the OFT after Overture raised its price, but it said it could see no grounds to proceed. Overture had competitors well-placed to benefit from any excessive price rise, the OFT said, both in search marketing and in digital marketing generally. Now Patel is making a fresh complaint, arguing that search marketing is a distinct sector of activity. Both Overture and Espotting dismissed the claim that they were acting uncompetitively. Market watchers had been expecting Espotting's move. With a 5p minimum bid price, it left itself vulnerable to Overture telling its distribution partners that it gave better revenue share.

Overture's Deal with Gator Causes Uproar Amongst Webmasters & Search Engine Marketers

An earlier story, Overture Signs Deal with Gator, is causing an uproar amongst webmasters and the search engine community, with many marketers claiming they will be boycotting Overture from now on. What's the big fuss about, you may ask? Well, Gator is a new class of advertising software products, known as Scumware, which typically installs on your PC as part of a software download, without you requesting it. Another well known scumware product is eZula. Once it's there, the software does tricks like putting commercial links by highlighting words on every web page, inserting a yellow background behind keywords that have been purchased by advertisers -- without the site's consent. They can also trigger a pop-under window when a scumware user searches on a site such as Google and Yahoo. If a web user clicks on one of those yellow highlighted words on a web page, the user is whisked away to the site of the company paying the most that day for each click-through. What this basically means is that scumware "steals" traffic and customers from web sites, without compensating the site owners. Commercial web sites that sells products or services, advertising, or refer visitors to products and services via affiliate programs lose out, as scumware companies are effectively "stealing" these sources of income right from under the web site owners' noses. Jim Wilson of Scumware.com has classified this type of advertising software as a "virus" -- since you didn't ask for it, it takes control of your browser, and makes changes to everything you read on the Internet. Other major search engines that advertise in the Gator network include LookSmart, Terra Lycos, FindWhat, and Espotting. For more information on this topic follow this heated discussion at WebmasterWorld. There are also links to press coverage on Scumware and the effects of these programs under these categories, Allegedly Unethical Firms: Gator and Allegedly Unethical Firms: Ezula, in the Open Directory.

Overture Signs Deal with Gator

Overture Services has signed a three-year deal with Gator to display its sponsored search listings on pages that pop under those of rival and partner Web sites. Overture has been testing a partnership with Gator's online advertising and information network (GAIN) for several months. In the last week, the company committed to a lengthy deal to distribute sponsored listings from its advertising network onto Gator's new paid search product, Search Scout. Like previous products from Gator, Search Scout allows advertisers to reach members of the Gator network when they are visiting competitors' sites by triggering a pop-under window when a Gator customer searches on a site such as Google or Yahoo. The window lists search results tied to keywords purchased through competing search services. Gator says it has about 35 million active users on the GAIN network and Gator wallet software, with about 600 advertisers targeting messages to those people. Gator's practices and those of its advertisers have drawn much controversy in Internet publishing and e-commerce circles, sparking numerous lawsuits. Search experts have criticized Gator's Search Scout for its potential to alienate Overture's established advertisers, as well as those of other search providers. [Full story: Overture signs deal with Gator - CNET News]

Alfi Knives Converts 18% of Overture Clicks

Here's a more comprehensive story on the Amazon.com and Google tie-up. What I found particularly interesting in the story was the conversion stats, and I quote, "Alfi Knives is paying 68 cents on average per click at Overture, for 80 percent of its traffic, with 18 percent of the traffic generating roughly $29,000 in sales per month." [Full story: Amazon.com taps paid search - CBS MarketWatch]

Microsoft Denies Developing Its Own Paid-Search Service

Overture Services and Microsoft denied an analyst's report on Wednesday that said Microsoft would develop its own paid-search service that would put its relationship with Overture in jeopardy. In a research note, SoundView Technology Group's Jordan Rohan cited an internal memo and remarks Steve Ballmer made last week as evidence that Microsoft, whose MSN service provides about one third of Overture's revenue, would develop its own paid-search platform. "Overture may attempt to deny the gravity of the evidence," Rohan noted, "yet we believe the implications are clear." Microsoft, however, dismissed the report as uninformed. "Microsoft and MSN are completely committed to our relationship with Overture," said Bob Visse, director of marketing for MSN. "We have no intention of developing our own paid-search platform." Visse said the company continued to invest in search, but apart from the paid-listings area. [Full story: Microsoft Denies Paid-Search Plans - InternetNews]

Overture Ends Grandfather Bids Between $0.01 & $0.04

Q: Why are you raising the minimum bid to $0.10 and ending the grandfather period for listings priced between $0.01 and $0.04?

A: Recently, Overture has negotiated long-term distribution deals with key affiliate partners, including MSN and Yahoo!, which allows our advertisers to benefit from the targeted leads provided by these popular portals for many years to come. In addition, we've also expanded into a number of international territories, providing advertisers with globally oriented products and services an easy, cost-effective way to target Internet users around the world. To help offset the costs associated with such deals, as well as to support further innovations to our pioneering Pay-For-Performance™ search service, Overture adjusted its minimum pricing requirements. [FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions - Overture]

FindWhat.com Launches Campaign Scheduler

Findwhat.com today announced the launch of a new feature-FindWhat.com Campaign Scheduler. The Campaign Scheduler allows advertisers to schedule when their campaigns will run. This allows advertisers to better manage and control their online advertising by automatically activating and deactivating their FindWhat.com campaign within date ranges set by the advertisers themselves. Key features include a one step process to schedule campaign start and end dates, and the ability to change or delete previously scheduled campaign dates.

Espotting to Double Minimum Bid Price to 10 Pence

Espotting, the leading paid-for listings player in Europe, powering 700 million searches a month to over 14,000 advertisers, to double minimum bid price. As of 1:00am on Tuesday 15th April 2003, Espotting will be increasing its minimum bid from 5p to 10p across their UK network of distribution partners. All bids between 5p and 9p will automatically be moved to 10p with their positions retained at that moment in time. If you are using their Auto-Bid Management tool, all cap prices between 5p and 9p will also automatically be moved to 10p. Espotting recommend you review your bids prior to the 15th April.

Google's AdWords Ads Appear on Fastclick & Burst Media Network

Google has partnered with two online-advertising networks to display pay-for-performance text ads across sites affiliated with the networks--a move aimed at rapidly expanding the search giant's marketing business. In the last month, Google's AdWords, or text-link, ads have started appearing on sites belonging to Web publishers that are members of major ad networks, including Fastclick and Burst Media--which combined represent sales of ad space on nearly 24,000 sites. Google said it started syndicating ads to Fastclick and Burst, among others, as part of a test of its newly minted service to place text ads on pages selected for their relevance to a marketer's products or services. [Full story: Google, ad networks team on text ads - CNET News]

Is Amazon.com Aiming at the Pay Per Click Advertising Market?

Online retailer Amazon.com has filed for a patent on a method for auctioning Web advertisements, a move that raises questions about the company's interest in the ad market. Specifically, the company is seeking a patent for "a method in a computer system for allocating display space on a Web page, the method comprising: receiving multiple bids indicating a bid amount and an advertisement," according to the application. The system continues with "receiving a request to provide the Web page to a user; selecting, based at least in part on review of bid amounts, a received bid; and adding the advertisement of the selected bid to the Web page." Internet media executives say the proposed method takes a page from cost-per-click advertising with search engines such as Overture and Google. David Halprin, an Internet analyst and consultant, speculated that Amazon may aim to enter the advertising auction market for business-to-business customers. Or the company may aim to profit from the patent later when and if other companies begin to offer such a service. [Full story: Amazon makes Web-ad patent bid - ZDNet UK News]

LookSmart Enhances Listings

LookSmart announced a series of enhancements for its Small Business Listings service. New features include upgraded tracking, expanded reporting, more flexible listing management and reduced fees. Enhancements include enhanced campaign tracking and reporting, tracking codes, personalized campaign reports that can be exported to Excel and PDF. You can aggregate listings in campaigns and manage multiple campaigns in an account. Fees have also been reduced to make LookSmart Small Business Listings more affordable. Add new listing set-up fee is reduced to $29 from $49. Update an existing listing fee is reduced to $19 from $49.

Paid-Search Revenue Grew 40% Last Year, to $1.4 Billion

In 1998, Overture was the first to charge advertisers to be listed in its search results. Now, all the major search companies have jumped in. So-called paid-search revenue grew 40% last year, to $1.4 billion. It's now up to 23% of the $6 billion Net advertising market, which shrank 17% last year. Search-related revenues, mostly from advertising, will grow 43% this year, to $2 billion. Search advertising is cheap. At an average of 35 cents a click, paid search undercuts the $1-per-lead average for Yellow Pages ads. The money is split between the portal, which generates the traffic, and its search-advertising provider. When a user clicks a search-related ad on Yahoo, for example, Overture keeps 14 cents and sends 21 cents to Yahoo. [Full story: Search Engines Are Picking Up Steam - BusinessWeek]

FindWhat.com Launches ROI Tool

Paid listings provider FindWhat.com announced availability of a new tool that allows its advertisers to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of their keyword advertising programs. AdAnalyzer inserts a tag into the destination pages of an advertiser's site. The tags collect data from users arriving on the site via referrals from the FindWhat.com network. Marketers can view data on page views, conversions and ROI via AdAnalyzer. Results can be viewed by keyword or by campaign. AdAnalyzer will be offered as a free additional service to FindWhat.com advertisers. [Full story: FindWhat.com Launches ROI Tool - InternetNews]

Google Introduces Automated Content-Targeted Ads

Google today announced a new content-targeted advertising service that replaces untargeted ads with relevant sponsored links in and amongst web page content. Google identifies the meaning of a web page and then automatically serves relevant ads. [Press release: Google Builds World's Largest Advertising and Search Monetization Program - Google]