• Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Monday, January 16, 2006 12:45 PM

Microsoft, in its ongoing battle with Yahoo! and Google over the hearts and minds of major marketers, is developing new technology that will help advertisers market their products to online audiences more effectively than ever before. One new project would allow viewers to click on cars, clothing or other products that appear in online movies or TV shows and be immediately transported to advertisements for those products. The technology was unveiled at the company's recent adCenter Demo. To further bolster research efforts in the online advertising space, Microsoft has formed a new unit called the adCenter Incubation Lab, a joint venture between the company's research and adCenter groups. More than 50 Microsoft researchers in Redmond headquarters and in China--experts in data mining, artificial intelligence, information retrieval and other areas --will be devoted to the project. The formation of the Lab underscores the importance Microsoft is placing on online advertising as it attempts to transform its business. Spending on U.S. online advertising is expected to nearly double in the next five years to $26 billion, or 8 percent of the entire advertising market, according to Forrester Research.

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