• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 26, 2007

Challenging Google’s hegemony has become a cottage industry, as rivals seek to exploit gaps in the search giant’s online empire. Among the latest is Fast, which is unveiling a new ad-supported search platform aimed at giving media companies another alternative to Google’s AdSense.

Unlike AdSense, Fast’s AdMomentum promises to let Web publishers run their own ad-driven sites without having to split revenues with Google or any another search provider. Ads can be targeted by keyword, geographic location and demographic factors, and sold according to different models including cost-per-click and cost-per-action.

“You take that same Web-page real estate and put your own ads there that you sell yourself and keep all the money,” explains Rob Carney, senior director of business development in the media and entertainment practice at Fast, which focuses on enterprise search for large corporations. Because publishers are tuned in to how their own sites are used, they’re best equipped to develop contextual advertising for them, he adds.

Along with AdMomentum, Fast is also launching a new video search platform that takes direct aim at Google Video, with features that allow playback from specific points within a video and more extensive text results accompanying videos. Both its Multimedia Miner video search and AdMomentum are built on Fast’s core ESP search engine.

Already on board with Fast’s new search offerings launching at the end of April are big media names including The New York Times, Comcast, the Financial Times and the Hearst Corp.