The program, called adCenter, has been in a test phase since early last year. Though only about 25 percent of sponsored links on MSN’s search results come from adCenter, Tarek Najm, adCenter's general manager, said that number would grow to 100 percent by June.
The other 75 percent currently are outsourced to Yahoo on a contract that expires in June.
Najm said adCenter would eventually be able to offer companies the ability to buy advertising throughout Microsoft’s online properties, including its blogging sites and Office Live system, which offers a host of business software and online services.
Najm also said the company was in the final stage of developing tools that would provide advertisers with extensive demographic information for targeting ads. Though details of the tools were not discussed, Najm said they would concentrate on age, gender and other traits specific to viewing habits.
For example, the technology purports to help a sporting goods advertiser target surfers who frequently search for outdoor gear, or a film company snag the eyeballs of people who consistently look up information related to a film’s theme.
“With long-term applied research, we will continue to help improve advertisers' return on investment by delivering rich audience intelligence information and enabling simple and complete control over all aspects of the advertising campaigns,” Najm said.
How the service will do this without using personally identifiable information was not disclosed, but Najm said to expect the release of the demographic tools within the next 6-12 months.