MSN has given a soft launch to the U.S. pilot of its new adCenter pay-per-click search ad platform, intended eventually to offer a search-ad alternative to both Google and Yahoo!
The company sent e-mail invitations to selected companies last week, asking them to sign on as beta testers and to forward the invitations to other likely candidates. The news reached the Internet on Thursday when Todd Friesen, owner of search engine optimization company Oilman productions, posted the invitation he had received on his blog.
“As you know, we launched MSN adCenter—our next generation advertising platform—in France and Singapore last month,” the e-mail read in part. “Now, as we prepare to launch the U.S. pilot… we need your help in getting your friends and family to apply to participate in the self-service offering for small-to-medium businesses.”
Once it became known the solicitation was up on the Web, Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of MSN Information Services, posted it to the official MSN Search Weblog.
The e-mail points out that entry to the U.S. test is by invitation only, with MSN selecting participants on a rolling basis. It also explains that during the pilot, MSN adCenter will deliver text ads on up to 25% of MSN Search traffic; the remainder will be delivered by Yahoo!, which has a contract to serve up sponsored listings on MSN Search until July 2006.
In September, Mehdi told a New York Advertising Week audience that adCenter would begin its U.S. test this month.
Network
