The service places text ads from its existing index of advertisers on content pages owned by its partner companies, with the ads linked to the subject matter of the page. Microsoft Corp’s MSN is the first major company to use the service.
Overture’s main business is in providing ads as a supplement to search engine listings at portals such as MSN and Yahoo. By extending this to content pages, the company hopes to increase the number of clicks it gets, which increases the advertisers’ payout.
Google, Overture’s primary competitor, introduced a similar service in February, the same week as Overture acquired two algorithmic search providers and announced its intention to get into contextual search.
Source: Computerwire
