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Just An Online Minute... A Penny For Your Search

Way back when, when the Minute was growing up, the connection between Web search and advertising was simple. Everyone used Google, and we liked it! Alas, it was only a matter of time before Google's floundering rivals began rocking the boat, unnecessarily complicating a system that, well, did the job just fine.

This week witnessed Microsoft's Bill Gates in India proposing a scheme to reimburse consumers for searching with MSN. "We'll actually go to users and say instead of us keeping all that ad revenue, we'll actually share some of it back with the user," said Gates, according to a transcript supplied by Microsoft. "The user essentially will get paid, either [in] money or free content or software--things that they wouldn't get if they didn't use that search engine."

But, while it's probable that more users would mean more advertisers buying ads with MSN, many marketers reacted negatively to Gates' idea--insisting that the quality of the engine is what matters. A free toaster might work once or twice, but ultimately consumers judge engines based on their ability to get the job done.

In other search advertising news, the online radio network Mercora has begun offering advertisers a self-service Google-AdWords-like ad-selling system by the name of MadWords. Intended for record labels, online music sellers, and other music-related businesses, MadWords sells keyword advertising over the Mercora Music Search Network.

Advertisers can buy music-related keywords like "genre," "artist," "band," or related artists/bands on a CPM basis--rather than cost-per-clicks. Mercora has spent the past two years establishing a following for its free and legal peer-to-peer music-sharing network, Mercora IMRadio. Mercora is able to offer users copyrighted digital music over the Internet because each user streaming music files over the Mercora network is technically considered a broadcaster, or "Webcaster," and may thus share their music with others legally.

Participating advertisers are given an automatic price quote immediately when they choose the type of ad they wish to run, the number of impressions they want, and the degree of targeting they wish to engage. Introductory pricing starts at $2/TCPM. Advertisers using MadWords can start with a minimum budget of $5.

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