The adwords blog has announced the launch of a demographic bidding beta test and is offering the chance for advertisers in the UK and the US to sign up for the trial.  Reading into the release the targeting is only going to be available on the content network placement network and is dependent on the publisher site having the capability to provide the information on the users.  If the site has this information, more often than not through a sign in system, then it will be shared anonymously to Google and the appropriate ads.

From the detail in this article the benefits of this system over MSN’s own demographic targeting system is that the system will allow you to up weight your bids by a higher percentage (MSN’s limit is 150%) and that you will also be able to choose not to show your ads to certain audiences.  This is certainly an advance on MSN but the impact of it will be limited by the reliance on the publisher site and the fact that the targeting wont apply to the main Google search results, where it could have most benefit.  This is obviously due to the fact that you dont need to be signed in to Google to use it although they could have implemented it for those people who have a Google account and perform searches whilst signed in.  Maybe that will be in the next release, I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

It was announced last week on the official google blog that Google are currently testing out their latest project Google Knol which is a wiki based information source populated by knowledgeable contributed and edited by the users.  This is obviously a direct competition to Wikipedia and is based on the same principles and ideas. 

Apparently the challenge posed by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge, and this was their solution.  At the moment the tool is only open to a select group of invited individuals and the tool is in its first stage of development and testing but with the speed at which Google tend to do things I cant see it being long before its launched to the public.  According to the article goal is for Knols to cover all topics and to highlight and credit authors, something which is rarely done online. 

Much like on Wikipedia users will be able to submit edits, questions, comments, additional content etc etc but they can also include Adsense ads in relation to their article and earn a percentage of the revenue earned through these ads.  This is where Knol might steel a march on Wikipedia as Wiki users participate for free and have no option to earn money.  It is a nice touch from Google as they are appearing to be giving back to the contributors when in reality they are obviously taking the Lion’s share of the profits for themselves.

One question that does need to be asked is what does this mean for Wikipedia, and in particular their search rankings?  They do very well in the natural results and Google have often been criticised for ranking the site so well.  Could it be that we will start to see the demise of Wiki’s search rankings once Knol is introduced, now that would be convenient!  However Google might not even need to do this as they say in their article “A Knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read.” Which suggests to me that the Knol’s may become a part of the Universal Search page and appear above all the natural results anyway.  Could the end be nigh for Wikipedia?

Tags: wikipedia, Google, universal search, google knol, knol

Wow! Miva must have cut their own throats to get this deal!

Miva Beats Google, Yahoo to Land Conde Nast U.K. Account
30th March 2007

Online ad network Miva has won the pay-per-click account of Conde Nast Interactive U.K., besting Yahoo and incumbent Google, writes paidContent.
The agreement covers all 12 Conde Nast U.K. sites, including Vogue.com, GQ.com, Glamourmagazine.com, CNtraveller.co.uk, Vanityfair.co.uk and the newly launched, Stylefinder.com. The total volume of page impressions of these 12 sites exceeds 54 million per month.
Six Miva PPC ads will be displayed across every page of the 12 sites through ad units at the bottom of the page, according to Miva. The implementations will include advertisers’ logos, and the ads will be targeted using both the content of the page they appear on and the demographic of the site users. All implementations will be un-branded and designed to mirror the design style of the individual Conde Nast properties.
In addition to ads on Conde Nast’s U.K. websites, Miva’s ads will be embedded in 500,000 opt-in emails sent daily, weekly or every two weeks, depending on the newsletters’ publication schedule, to Conde Nast Interactive’s email subscribers.

apparently micorsoft is planning to expand its content offering and also the use of adcenter. verticalisation of the content network is essential if it is going to survive and be a useful medium in search marketing. google have done it through site targetting, miva are planning on completely restructuring around it and now microsoft is looking to follow suit. The obvious result of this (or what they will tell you) is much more targetted traffic. this has not been seen yet on Miva’s precision network (and costs have risen!) but if it is done well I can see it working. In the majority of markets though it will always be the poor relation to the main search network. It is still open to fraud and I still question whether unless a user is actively searching that they have a high enough propensity to click and ad and then ultimately convert through the website.


Microsoft’s adCenter content ads expanded
Advertisers looking for a better way to control and influence their online advertising efforts are going to get some help from Microsoft. Looking to increase how online marketers interact with their ad serving software, the company is expanding their adCenter offerings. According to reports, the expansion will give advertisers more control over online campaigns.
by Kristina Knight
The expansion will also give advertisers more outlets within the canopy of the MSN network.
MSN’s networks like Health and Fitness, Tech and Gadgets, Travel and Money currently house the majority of content ads from advertisers. With the new system, advertisers will control which networks show their ads, even going so far as to determine which specific content pages the ads appear upon. They will also be able to determine whether or not to allow ads within Windows Live Search results pages.
Advertisers can choose to run ads either on network content pages, on Live Search results pages or both. They can also track ad sales results from each platform.
There is no word when or if the content ads will be offered outside the Microsoft Network umbrella, but the potential to offer advertisers specialized ads on other platforms, like through Yahoo’s Panama platform or through Google’s AdSense platform is possible.