Microsoft Tests Software Link Of Web Searches to Advertisers
Microsoft Corp . is testing software that links Web searches to advertisers, firing the latest salvo in a battle with Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. to pull more advertising dollars online.
The pilot, to be run in France and Singapore, is the second half of Microsoft's effort to build its own Internet search business. Microsoft late last year opened its "algorithmic" search engine, which pulls up links to Web pages based on key-word searches.
The new software allows advertisers to link advertisements to relevant search results. Microsoft charges advertisers a fee each time users click on the ads. Called MSN adCenter, the software eventually will also allow advertisers to access detailed data on MSN users, such as age, gender and "lifestyle" characteristics, helping them to tailor their marketing efforts.
For now, the new functions Microsoft is testing appear to be more advanced than those offered by its lead competitors. Today most services charge fees based on the number of "clicks" on a specific advertisement but provide little information about people who searched on a specific term.
An advertiser linked to "NCAA basketball," for instance, on MSN adCenter could view graphs showing that mostly males age 16 to 60 searched for the term. Such information can be used by Microsoft to tailor its fees based on the audience and move online advertisers from "buying keywords to buying an audience," Microsoft Vice President Yusuf Mehdi said.
Microsoft said it will give advertisers only aggregate data, not the identities of individual searchers.
Mr. Mehdi says the company plans to expand the software so that it can give "one-stop shopping" for buying advertisements across MSN's various services. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer will announce the new service today at a conference for online advertisers that Microsoft is holding at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash.
Microsoft's initiative comes amid a scramble by the fast-growing search industry to beef up its advertising offerings to appeal to deeper-pocketed advertisers and smaller companies that to date haven't been big spenders online. The search companies are also trying to expand beyond the traditional advertiser categories that have spent heavily with them -- midsize companies and specific sectors such as telecoms, travel and finance.
Yahoo, for instance, is working on a system to broker online advertisements for small and midsize Web publishers that matches advertisements with relevant content on partner Web sites, according to people familiar with the company's plans.
"The big thing here is: How do we grow the advertiser base" online, Mr. Ballmer said in an interview. He estimated that just 500,000 companies advertise on the Internet, compared with about seven million in the Yellow Pages. In addition to attracting large advertisers, Microsoft hopes the service allows small businesses "to participate in a more effective way." MSN already sells advertisements on its sites, including some on its search pages, but on a negotiated contract basis,
Google and Yahoo already dominate the market for search-based advertising, so Microsoft must play catch-up. Currently, Microsoft pays Yahoo to handle the advertising links in a deal that runs until June 2006. Yahoo executives have conceded in recent weeks that they probably can't count on brokering ads for Microsoft's search results in the future. Still, "our relationship remains intact," a Yahoo spokeswoman said.
Already, Microsoft plans to replace search ads provided by Yahoo with its own ads in France. Microsoft executives won't comment on their plans to roll out the service in other markets.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on MSN's plans.
微软测试新的广告链接软件
微软(Microsoft Corp., MSFT)正在测试一种能将网络搜索结果与广告商相链接的软件。这是微软在与Google Inc.和雅虎公司(Yahoo! Inc., YHOO)争夺在线广告收入中打出的新招数。
微软开发的新软件允许广告商把广告和与其有关的搜索结果相链接。每当用户点击广告，微软就向广告商收取费用。这款名为MSN adCenter的软件最终还将使广告商获得MSN用户的详细数据，例如年龄、性别和生活方式特点等等。此类信息将帮助广告商制定相应的营销策略。
到目前为止，微软测试的这种新功能似乎领先于它的主要的竞争对手，因为时下多数服务商的收费依据都是某个广告的点击数量，很少提供与搜索某个项目的用户有关的信息。
