• by March 11, 2005

Yahoo! is preparing to introduce an ad network for small online publishers that's designed to take on Google's AdSense product, according to a report appearing today on CNET News.com.

The plan to deliver text ads to small sites and blogs indicates Yahoo! doesn't plan to cede this market to Google, not by an inch. According to the CNET report, Yahoo!'s product will offer text ads that are relevant to various Web pages; advertisers pay when a reader clicks on their ad. Yahoo! and partner publishers split the fees in a revenue-sharing arrangement, according to the report.

Meanwhile, on an unrelated search issue, Google has removed some of its Web pages from its Web index, according to a report in eWeek. It made the move after reports surfaced that the pages used a search-optimization method that Google doesn't endorse. The pages appeared on Google's AdWords program. So-called "cloaking" is used as a method of ranking higher in search results. Google doesn't condone cloaking and has indicated that it will remove sites from its index if they employ the practice of cloaking.

Google admitted to "inadvertently" displaying information on pages supporting its site search crawler and its Web crawler.