March 16, 2006 | In Business, Technology |
This past Monday was the first small window of opportunity for US advertisers to participate in trails of the MSN AdCenter internet advertising solution.
For a three-hour period, beginning at 9 a.m. EST, companies in the United States were invited to join those in France and Singapore, for a one-time $5 sign-up fee. Quite an opportunity for a lucky few, but Microsoft has obviously decided not to open the floodgates on the US market just yet.
Expected to fully launch sometime this summer, MSN AdCenter will cover all aspects of the multi-billion dollar internet advertising business, offering PPC search ads, online branding, email marketing, and more. It is being designed to compete with Google Adwords, but some analysts are sceptical of MSN’s ability to break from its constant third-place position, and be a true competitor to Google or even Yahoo in this highly profitable industry.
They certainly have a lot of catching up to do, but if MSN wants to try and provide another quality option for internet advertisers and publishers, they certainly won’t get any objections from me. 
