• by Shankar Gupta , January 17, 2007

Search engine and keyword ad seller MIVA today launched an ad network for publishers, MIVA Monetization Center, that will offer pay-per-click search keyword ads, content-targeted ads, or in-text hyperlink ads.

The content-targeted ads appear in IAB-standard ad units, similar to Google AdSense content-targeted ads, while the pay-per-click search ads appear if a publisher places a MIVA-powered search box on the site. The in-text hyperlink ads appear as linked words within the content, and pop up when moused over.

Chrysi Philalithes, vice president of marketing and global communication for MIVA, said the company aims to provide more customization and transparency than larger competitors, and to give publishers a larger share of the revenue. She said that publishers' share of revenue will increase based on the ads' performance. Publishers will also be able to customize how the ads appear on their pages, Philalithes said. "Fonts, colors--we give a great deal of customization," she said. "It's really built there to get the publisher as much control and visibility as possible."

This new offering is unrelated to MIVA's recent decision to end a search ad partnership with Yahoo and replace the company with Google, Philalithes said. That deal affected only sites managed by MIVA Direct, which produces white-label toolbar and Web search.