• by Masha Geller , January 9, 2003

Why does it seem like Ask Jeeves’ announcement to do away with banners on its sites has gone largely unnoticed by the online ad world?

On Monday, the company said it would stop using banner ads on its Internet search properties, and instead focus on sponsored searches - keyword targeted, text-based ad units that appear under the heading "featured sponsor" at the top of the Ask Jeeves' results page. Another offering, Branded Response, lets advertisers reach a targeted audience using graphics and images on the results page.

This is the second such proscription from Ask Jeeves in recent months. Not too long ago, following the example of iVillage and AOL, the company issued a refusal to accept pop-ups – a decision that raised some eyebrows from financial folk, but was welcomed by most consumers.

The notable thing here is this. Remember the launch of MyWay.com in the middle of November? The portal that decided to go against the likes of Yahoo! on the premise of delivering full portal functionality without a single banner or pop-up throughout the entire site?

How were they planning to make money? Also with paid listings. And proving the skeptics wrong, the site looks to be doing quite well. They even went so far as to have the following phrase on their media kit landing page: “My Way is not in the business of selling ads. (Thought you had us, didn't you?)”

Anyone seeing a trend here? Looks like paid search is in and the banner is out. No wonder Overture is not worried about its future despite the Yahoo/Inktomi deal.