Adsense? Yes Please!
I have to say, Google did it right. They saw what Overture was doing and just did it better. Overture has been goofing around for a while with their “syndication” of their ads on partner sites. But, they have been very selective on who can place their CPC ads on their sites. I can understand that they did not want to deal with the small people, as they typically represent the vast majority of the support that you need to do. But, as soon as Overture saw how successful Adsense was becomming, they should have been hard at work to come up with their own solution for the masses.
Now, Overture/Yahoo! Search Marketing is supposedly working on just this. I recieved a phone call from them a couple of months ago, asking if I would be interested in running their network ads on our websites. I jokingly told the girl that of course I would. Then I proceeded to ask her what they have been doing for so long. I left it at that and figured that I would soon be hearing a ton of new news about this. I did not.
Then I went on a friend’s bachelor party to Mexico a few weeks ago. Two of my friends on the trip work at Overture. Of course I told them that I was psyched to hear that they were finally entering the ad syndication for the masses market. They told me that they didn’t think that what I envisioned (an Adsense rip-off) was likely going to become a reality. Then they basically told me that there is no reason for them to do it and that I am an idiot for disagreeing with them. I was dumbfounded.
So, I hope that my two buddies really are the ones that don’t know what they are talking about. I don’t see Yahoo! (who now owns Overture) sitting around anymore while Google just swallows up the online world with their offerings. Yahoo! has been making good progress lately and I, along with plenty of others, are very glad to see it. I just hope that they will be in there, competing neck and neck with Google (and MSN) for just about everything us webmasters are using to make money these days. It can only help.