Microsoft to Launch Paid Search Ads to Compete with Google, Yahoo

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 2:43am.

Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft plans to launch its own paid search advertising service, to compete in the lucrative market dominated by Google and Yahoo, which currently provides paid search ads for MSN Search. The service will provide advertisers with non-personally-identifiable information on users of its search engine, such as gender, age and location -- gathered from tracking users of Microsoft's Hotmail and other online services. Microsoft will test its new adCenter service in Singapore and France, in tandem with Yahoo's service, over the next six months. The company's contract with Yahoo to provide paid search listings for MSN Search is due to expire in June 2006, but MSN corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi told the Associated Press it is too early to say if its service will launch in the U.S. before that date.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050316/microsoft_paid_search_8.html
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