• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 15, 2006

Contextual ad network ContextWeb today is slated to announce a partnership with InfoSpace, the publicly traded provider of Web search for mobile phones, to market a graphical ad product. The offering will be sold under the InfoSpace name to Web publishers through its search and directory sales group.

The companies expect the offering to be in market for the third quarter of 2006. ContextWeb's real-time indexing allows a plug and play solution with no integration required by publishers. InfoSpace partners will be expected to schedule the contextual product through DFP, OAS, Accipiter, or an alternative dynamic ad-serving environment.

ContextWeb's ContextAd tool uses both categories and keywords for analysis and matching, delivering better accuracy--a four- to six-times greater likelihood that ads will equal conversions, according to the company.

InfoSpace has been under pressure from the market to improve its offerings. Its mobile division managed to increase revenue a bit in the first quarter year-over-year--to $44.1 million from $39 million--although InfoSpace's online division actually fell in the first quarter to $46.1 million, from $44.3 million during the same period last year.