• Read/Write Web, Tuesday, January 8, 2008 12:30 PM

SimplyGen, Ltd. has rolled out PredictAd, an AJAX-based plugin that pumps ads into a site's search box and displays them when users get search suggestions. For example, a user could be searching for "Xbox cheat codes" on a game enthusiast site and when the drop-down search box suggests various spellings and related terms, it will also serve a contextual ad.

Josh Catone has screenshots of the plugin in action, and the model seems viable and non-intrusive. Israel-based SimplyGen has two revenue-sharing models (50/50 for run of network ads and 80/20 on site specific ads), and ads are sold on a CPC, auction-style basis. Webmasters can also choose to have particular ads always show up in their auto-suggest-enabled search box, regardless of the terms searchers enter.

Catone says the caveats are that PredictAd's contextual engine is only as good as the engine that powers the site's auto-completion feature, and that the hosted service is sometimes very slow.

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