Yahoo! Unveils Publisher Network

Yahoo launched the beta version of its publisher network that should soon be competing with Google’s Adsense.

The service is designed to let publishers access Yahoo’s ad products and content through a self-serve platform. The company said the beta offering will be available in the U.S. only through invitation.

With this move, Yahoo is entering a territory that has been dominated by rival Google, which provides text-only ads to small content sites, including blogs.

Yahoo! will begin by offering publishers its Content Match contextual listings. The company expects to make available additional products, including the Y!Q contextual site search product and "Add to My Yahoo!" RSS syndication tools. Yahoo! is currently conducting tests to evaluate the advertising capabilities of Y!Q and RSS feeds.

A Yahoo! offering that pays attention to quality of sites in the network, strives for openness in its policies, and offers advertisers more control would address several of the issues marketers have raised about Google’s network. With the launch of this offering, advertisers should benefit from increased competition in an area that has been ruled by Google, and publishers will have another revenue-generating option for their sites.

In addition to Content Match, the beta will offer small publishers the ability to pull Yahoo content into their sites, using the "Add to My Yahoo" feature and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology to syndicate content such as job listings from HotJobs.com, shopping listings and other content from across the Yahoo portal.

The beta also includes Y!Q, a contextual search product that Yahoo debuted recently. Y!Q enables words on a Web page to become automatic search terms when clicked.

Some of the biggest changes, however, might be in how Yahoo plans to interact with the publishers invited to take part, by offering small publishers customer support via telephone and online. That part of the service seems clearly aimed at some of the frustration felt by bloggers and others in dealing with Google’s AdSense program.