Google on Friday plans to introduce a new display advertising program to compete with Yahoo, which has been the dominant online player in display advertising, says The New York Times.
(Update: Friday’s Wall Street Journal report.)
The Web search giant plans to introduce a “new version of an ad exchange, like a stock market, where advertisers and publishers can buy and sell advertising space, filling spots in Web pages on the fly,” the Times says.
“When a person requests a Web page from a site that is participating in the exchange, the publisher notifies the exchange that space on that page is available. It might also let the exchange know something about that person, based on his or her past online activity or shopping habits. Advertisers bid on the ad space, offering different amounts depending on the person’s attributes, the time of day and other factors. The winner’s ad is then slotted into the page. All of this happens nearly instantly.”
Yahoo’s online advertising network debuted in November 2006 and is made up of publishers of several hundred newspapers, including McClatchy Co., owner of The News & Observer in Raleigh, The Charlotte Observer and 28 other daily newspapers.
Google says its new DoubleClick Ad Exchange will greatly simplify the process of buying and selling display advertising. Analysts tell the Times that it it isn’t likely to catch up with Yahoo soon, but could eventually overtake it.
Tags: Google, Yahoo newspaper consortium