• ClickZ, Monday, June 5, 2006 11:30 AM

Microsoft has followed in the footsteps of Google by showing text ads alongside users' e-mail messages in its Windows Live Mail Desktop application. The move marks a significant change in Microsoft's core revenue strategy, as the Redwood Calif. giant moves away from software and turns its focus to selling advertising. The new e-mail product, currently in beta, is part of the Windows Live family of Web-based software products. Text ads are contextually targeted against the content in users' messages. The program uses Active Search, and during beta, Kanoodle technology to target contextual terms while adCenter delivers sponsored links. Oh, how quickly things change: once upon a time, the practice of showing ads based on e-mail content was considered to be an invasion of privacy by privacy groups. Now that Google normalized the practice through Gmail--and virtually nobody complained--it's become an accepted revenue driver for Web companies. Microsoft is going one step further by showing both contextual and sponsored search links.

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