Microsoft unveils MSN adCenter

Microsoft released some details about its paid search product today. Quoting from its press release:

MSN to Preview Prototype Advertising Platform
At the summit MSN also will unveil Microsoft's next-generation online advertising platform, MSN adCenter, built on Microsoft® technology that will help advertisers get higher returns by understanding and connecting to their desired audience throughout the MSN network. Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division, will demonstrate the first component of MSN adCenter, a new prototype of an MSN paid-search solution for which a pilot program will begin within the next six months in Singapore and France to gather customer feedback.

Within the MSN adCenter platform, the new MSN paid-search solution will be tightly integrated with other future capabilities to give advertisers a one- stop shop from which to plan, execute and adjust their online campaigns. The new MSN paid-search solution will provide keyword buyers with in-depth audience intelligence including geographic location, gender, age group,
lifestyle segment and time of day. As a result, advertisers should be able to plan more strategic advertising investments and achieve higher click-to-buy conversion rates among consumers. MSN remains committed to working with Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and will continue to collaborate with it to offer high-quality search listings to advertisers.

It's a start...

Microsoft to enter the paid search market

Bloomberg News is reporting that Microsoft plans to announce the launch of a paid search product later this week. MSN Search currently shows ads from Overture (which is owned by Yahoo!) next to its search listings. While this generates revenue for Microsoft, they share it with Overture.

It has been long anticipated that Microsoft will launch its own paid search products so they can keep 100% of the revenue that advertisers pay to show ads triggered by keywords.

Stay tuned to find out more later this week...

Google adds weather

You can now get a weather report from Google. Simply type "weather" followed by a city and state or a zip code. Also, you can send the same search as a text message to 46645 (GOOG on most cell phones), and Google will send back a text message with the current weather forecast.

More info here.