In addition to reminding us that we’re all going to die, The New York Times has some very general details on a new Yahoo advertising platform dubbed AMP. As reporter Miguel Helft describes it:
“Yahoo said the system, called AMP and still months away from being ready, would greatly simplify the task of selling online ads, allowing Yahoo’s publishing partners, for instance, to place ads on their own sites as well as on Yahoo and on the sites of other publishers in the company’s growing network. Advertisers will be able to focus those ads by demographic profile, geography and online behavior.”
Essentially, the idea is to give advertisers on third-party sites in Yahoo’s network the same capabilities as those that advertise on Yahoo properties, as well as integrate the technology the company [img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]has gained through recent acquisitions (RightMedia, BlueLithium) in the online ad space. Yahoo already does this to some extent with their Yahoo Publisher Network product, but the idea here seems more focused on super publishers – including a consortium of some of the nation’s largest newspaper web sites.
While it has indeed become cliché to compare every new product to something being offered by Google, at least from the sound of the very non-technical details that the New York Times offers, there isn’t a whole lot new here beyond what’s already offered or in the works at AdSense. Much like what Yahoo is planning, AdSense has incrementally added features for publishers and advertisers that mimic those offered in AdWords – its system for advertising in Google search results.