Microsoft, China and Google

In the past I have written about the success of Google's adwords and commented that Microsoft does not like to be second class. Microsoft also has lots and lots of cash and can buy anything it wants. In June of this year it will begin to "out buy" and "out sell" Google word ads. Google's time as number one may be limited, or will Google maintain its prime adwords position?

An interim measure Microsoft took was to partner with Yahoo and Overture and their "pay per click" sponsored solution. The Microsoft "solution" is AdCenter which in its last pilot year "25 percent of sponsored links come from Microsoft's recent testing of AdCenter and that in June (2006) that percentage will grow to 100."

The incubation lab for Microsoft's "AdCenter" has been in operation in Beijing. The lab's mission: "to research and incubate advanced technologies for MSN AdCenter, designed to provide advertisers with rich targeting capabilities based on audience intelligence information and give consumers a more relevant online experience" (Search Pro News Jan 13 2006).

The AdCenter will encompass a broad range of Internet media; from Blogs, regular search engines, and video clips with hyper links to TV advertising. The ads will be targeted by contex, paid search, and large display ads.

The search technology will incorporate social network mining, data mining, information retrieval, statistical analysis, artificial intelligence, auction theory, visual computing and digital media.