Yes, you read the title right, Gary Price at SEW Blog reports that Coming Next Week: Microsoft Will Begin Testing Paid Listings Program in U.S..
This is based on a Wall Street Journal article which says;
Microsoft next week will announce plans to begin U.S. testing of MSN Keywords, its own system for placing ads on its MSN Internet search site. The system, which Microsoft began testing last month in France and Singapore, will debut in the U.S. in test form in October, according to Joe Doran, senior director, MSN.
So it is named "MSN Keywords," nice touch.
Microsoft next week will announce that an invitation-only test of MSN Keywords will begin in October with 500 advertisers and search-engine marketing specialists. The service will move MSN closer to how Google handles advertising, by using live auctions of keywords. MSN Keywords is one tool of a broader set of new advertising services called adCenter that Microsoft is building on MSN. Microsoft executives say they hope the tools will allow companies to tailor advertisements by giving them more detailed information on Web users than is currently available.
Crazy week, (1) Ask starts PPC Engine (2) then they remove some PPC ads and (3) YPN launches, to name a few.
I posted a forum thread at Search Engine Watch Forums.
