MSN / Microsoft adCenter Archives

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread has a member complaining that after he signed up with Microsoft adCenter, he noticed his site was removed from the Live Search index. For those that do not know, adCenter is the search ad product that goes along side the organic, pure and unbiased search results at Live Search.

To my surprise, an official Microsoft adCenter representative came into the thread and said:

I can understand the importance of this matter and I am happy to assist in this.

Can you please contact support and have this documented so that we can launch an investigation. Thanks so much.

Does that mean that if you are an adCenter advertiser, Microsoft will assist you with your ranking issues in the organic search side? If Google or Yahoo ever did this, all hell would break loose. I hope this was a miscommunication on the Microsoft side, because this implies, strongly implies, that there is not separation between the paid side and organic side of their search services. (Or maybe I am still sick and I missed something).

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Like most PPC campaign systems, there is a default cap at how many keywords, ad groups and so on you can have per account. Microsoft adCenter has their limits to:

• Keywords: 10,000 per adGroup
• Ads: 20 per adGroup
• Keyword Account Limit: 100,000

So you can basically max out your keyword list on a per account level to 100,000 keywords. I suspect a phone call to Microsoft, if needed, can help increase that limit, but I am not 100% sure about that.

adCenterRep adds he is "I am happy to assist" those with questions at a WebmasterWorld thread.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread says Microsoft is inviting some adCenter advertisers to beta test a new ad editor. The acronym for this product is ACE, standing for adCenter Editor (Beta).

According to the member in the thread, it appears to be an Internet Explorer browser plugin that helps you manage your search ads. I assume it speeds up the process as well as gives you more data as you edit them.

Here is the exact post from WebmasterWorld:

I just got an invite to try the beta version of the software called AdCenter Ace.

If you have firefox set as your default browser you may have trouble installing this program. I had to make IE my default browser to install Adcenter Ace :)

Hopefully it will become a bit easier to use AdCenter.

I don't have official confirmation from Microsoft on this new beta nor do I have screen captures at this moment.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that several Microsoft adCenter advertisers are recently unhappy with the quality of traffic they are seeing from adCenter.

The conversion rates on adCenter, as reported by a few advertisers, has been as low as ever. WebmasterWorld senior member, ByronM, posted some recent stats showing his concern. Based on over 200 clicks (not impressions, but clicks):

• Google has a 3.9% conversion rate
• Yahoo has a 2.2% conversion rate
• Microsoft has a 0.0% conversion rate

Two other members concurred with ByronM saying:

My experience is the same, for a time I was doing quite a lot with Adcenter but it's value seems to be diminishing and so is my spend with them! Certainly seeing much better conversion with Yahoo & Google at the moment.

Quality was great 2 years ago when it launched, then 6 months later CPC prices were higher than Google Adwords so I shut my clients campaigns off. I hear the traffic has gotten even lower in the last year, and I did not think that was even possible.

At this point, the thread is not large enough to say if this is a wide scale issue but it does seem to be ticking along.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Good news adCenter advertisers, Microsoft has finally fixed the broken dynamic keyword feature in adCenter.

We first reported the news back on February 21st, but even then it was an issue that was fairly old. But it should now be fixed.

adCenterRep posted last night saying:

I am happy to say that this issue is now resloved.

If you do experiance any errors, please contact support so that we can get it resloved quickly for you.

No adCenter advertisers have confirmed this statement, but I think we can trust the Microsoft representative. If things change, I will keep you posted.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Microsoft adCenter has allowed dynamic keyword insertion pretty much since they officially launched the program. But for a while now, the keyword insertion feature has not been working properly.

A WebmasterWorld thread asks if the feature has been fixed yet. The answer is no.

adCenterRep, the official Microsoft representative, confirmed the fix is not yet available:

I understand the importance of having the {keyword:default} working correctly and we are still investigating into this.

adCenterRep offers some "work arounds" for this issue:

• Not to use {param1} as a destination U if using {keyword:default} in ad titles
• Use static ad titles
• Use the same syntax for the dynamic insertions throughout the ad (for example, use {param1:default})

I guess don't use dynamic keyword insertion if you are using Microsoft adCenter.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Many of you probably already know that Microsoft's Live Search has been displaying "Sitelinks" under the first search result for some queries for a while now. In fact, they have been doing this since the Microsoft Searchification Day 2007 in September 2007. Here is an example.

Search on microsoft at Live Search and you get little links under the main search result:

Search on microsoft at Google and you get the same thing:

Yes, both Google and Microsoft do this. Yahoo does this with Quick Links more on how to earn or buy them over here. Ask.com does not appear to use a form of site links.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

On January 7th, we asked you to vote on the most improved PPC program of 2007. Your votes are now all in and I wanted to share the 76 responses.

Overall, most of you felt Yahoo Search Marketing was the most improved PPC program of 2007. Yahoo launched Panama, the code name of their new PPC program, in October 2006 but really didn't start having Overture account (the old PPC system) migrated for a few months after that. Yahoo, in 2007, began also migrating the new system worldwide. Yahoo's new PPC system is a total overhaul of the old Overture system, and that is why most feel it is the most improved.

Here are the raw results:

As you can see, Google came in a fairly close second. Google has made several significant upgrades to their AdWords system, including dozens of quality score updates, smart pricing, demographic bidding and much much more.

Thank you for taking the poll.

Continued forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Yesterday, Microsoft showed off new forms of advertising, including demographic targeting and ads in video clips, according to Forbes.

Some of the proposed ad changes include targeting advertisements around key ideas rather than hundreds or thousands of keywords. The ads are not so search-centric and rely on browsing habits, such as watching videos.

One crunched a clip, looking for the most appropriate stretch of time and spot on the screen for an advertiser's 'bug,' or logo. For example, if a car company wanted to show its logo for 10 seconds in the bottom-right-hand corner of the screen, the computer program would find the 10 seconds in which the logo interferes least with the action in the video.

Other possible implementations include text links that correlate to what someone is saying.

Sounds like a promising future in advertising for Microsoft.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

The Microsoft adCenter blog has announced that it has partnered with the Wall Street Journal for offering exclusive advertising content.

We're pleased to announce that on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, Microsoft and The Wall Street Journal Digital Network reached an agreement in which Microsoft will become the exclusive provider of contextual and paid search ads for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network (WSJDN), which includes WSJ.com, Barrons.com, Marketwatch.com, allthingsd.com along with other sites.

What this means: Microsoft will partner with the Wall Street Journal and any advertisers using Microsoft adCenter ContentAds will now get their ads on the highly-trafficked Wall Street Journal.

This is very promising, according to some.

I always like seeing "positive" Microsoft news. I'll have to say that MS have been "kicking it up a notch" over these past 90-120 days. TV advertising appears to be stepped up and earnings reports are good.

I'm rootin' for ya MS. We need some balance in our space and between you, Yahoo! and Ask.com, you're all we have left. :)

Looks good. Let's see how it plays out!

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

A WebmasterWorld member is disgruntled with Microsoft adCenter. Ever since his ads were optimized, adCenter stopped displaying them. He writes:

I have been running some campaings for 2 months. When I started optimizing bids my ads stopped being shown on msn and live. I have no impressions at all.

Rep says my site is not banned, but I need to change ads and increase bids which are not copetetive.

My bids ARE competetive, I change my ads I still have no impressions or just a few while before I had thousands and CTR apx 2%.

Unfortunately, he's not alone. Another member dropped adCenter in favor of Google.

They did the same to some of my accounts. I just pulled all my own and my clients' accounts out of adCenter and shifted the budgets back to Google - nine accounts in all - I don't have time for this, and the returns haven't been worth it.

It seems that while the same thing may happen on Google. Google's AdWords representatives tell the advertiser that they have to raise their minimum bid prices so that they get better traffic.

And all of these advertisers comply -- because they get a lot of traffic if they do.

The difference, then, between Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter is that the subscribers are willing to pay top dollar for Google's traffic. They can't say that they will get as good traffic from Microsoft, so they just drop Microsoft instead.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

A Search Engine Watch Forums thread is discussing if some companies are taking vanity search ads too far. Typically, the vanity search ads companies should own are for their own name and domain name. But some are going further. Some want to own it all and become synonymous with the product line they are selling. At what point is it too much?

For example, a search on computers returns ads from Microsoft, HP, Dell, Gateway, BestBuy, Circuit City, etc. BestBuy, Circuit City and their kind are buying the ads to sell. Microsoft, HP, Dell and Gateway might be trying to sell - but they might also be buying it for branding and vanity reasons. I don't see an Apple ad there.

How about the ultimate vanity ad for a search on god:

Nah, I made that up but something like that would be kind of crazy.

In any event, do you think some companies are taking it too far with vanity searches?

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

WebmasterWorld moderator, Receptional, says in a WebmasterWorld thread that Microsoft has invited him to participate in the adExcellence accreditation program in the UK. It seems like it was just launched, however we did expect an adExcellence UK launch in 2007 and not 2008. I guess being 15 days late isn't all that bad.

In any event, we first began hearing about this program in April 2007. You can sign up for the UK program over here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Last month, Microsoft announced an adCenter Excel 2007 plugin. Well, boys and girls, it's finally a reality. The Microsoft adCenter Excel Add In is ready to download. Note that it's a beta version as Microsoft continually improves on the product.

According to the Microsoft adCenter Blog, here are the features:

1. Keyword Expansion – we have included 3 different expansion algorithms: campaign association, fast contained, and category simulation
2. Keyword Search Volume Historical and Forecast – we have included daily and monthly keyword traffic data, including forecasting
3. Keyword Buzz – you can find buzz keywords in our 300+ verticals
4. Keyword Demographic analysis
5. Keyword Geographic analysis
6. Keyword Categorization
7. Keyword Monetization – you can find all monetization information (CPC, CTR, etc.) for your keyword list

Forum members are seriously impressed:

You weren't lying when you said you would love the tool. This is how it should have been done a while ago! WOW

There are other reactions as well. Dan Zarrella wrote his own impressions after testing it out. He's mostly reporting initial bugs as per the beta release, but it's a good read if you're also looking into the product.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld, Sphinn, and Search Engine Watch Forums.

A member posted a thread at WebmasterWorld in the Microsoft adCenter forum asking how he can advertise in the German market with adCenter. Guess what? You can't, not just yet.

However, adCenterEU, the official Microsoft representative in the European market, told this member to advertiser with Yahoo Search Marketing. He said:

It's true that adCenter is not available in Germany as yet, so i suggest you go through our paid search partner Yahoo! Search Marketing.

From the UK just sign up here:

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/en_GB/

Pretty cool! Well, I assume as soon as Microsoft expands into Germany, those recommendations will halt.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Interested on getting some cash? Well, you may be able to with the new MSN adCenter Affiliate Program. For every advertiser you refer to adCenter, you'll get a percentage of their signups.

Cool. It may help others too, as some forum members point out.

The only concern is the domain name and marketing behind the product. It really hasn't gained momentum and there's not much of a marketing push behind the initiative.

Interesting, I stumbled upon the adCenter affiliate program a few weeks ago and thought it was a dummy test site. There was no marketing push behind it and this affiliate program didn't seem to have much resources behind it. I did talk with Jessica Lee who was very kind, but couldn't tell me what the payout was. One reason is the domain name www.microsoftaffiliates.net. Come on Microsoft, you cant get microsoftaffiliates.com?

By the way, Google also has an affiliate program which is nearly three years old. It's good that Microsoft is also taking on the challenge.

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Yesterday, both Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter had reported issues with logging into their respective advertising consoles.

The first Google AdWords issues were reported at WebmasterWorld last night at 7:40pm (EST). Similar issues were reported with the AdSense console at DigitalPoint Forums at 7:35pm (EST) last night.

AdWordsAdvisor confirmed the issue at 8pm (EST) last night saying:

OK, yes, this is known to engineering - it's impacting a small percentage of advertisers, and folks here are hard at it to resolve, as you might well imagine.

The Google issue was then confirmed to be resolved at about 8:20pm (EST).

Microsoft adCenter had similar issues, and the first reports came yesterday morning via WebmasterWorld at about 5am (EST).

adCenterEU confirmed the issue was resolved at about 11am (EST) yesterday:

Excellent. Engineering let me know that this is now considered to be resolved - as of just a few minutes before the time you wrote, briggidere.

Again, my apology to those who were impacted. I'm glad it was brief. ;)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld (AdWords), DigitalPoint Forums (AdSense) and WebmasterWorld (adCenter).

Microsoft announced a new feature that advertisers can use make their search marketing ad management easier with Microsoft adCenter. The tool is an adCenter add-in for Excel. It will allow you to:

• Easily extract keywords from any website, just by entering the URL
• Quickly understand keyword popularity and trends
• Gain valuable insight on the demographic and geographic information of actual search queries

Some advertisers already got a preview of this tool and they had the following to say at a WebmasterWorld thread:

I've seen this in action... IT'S VERY NICE. I'd suggest getting on the beta asap.

I just got a long demo on the new Microsoft Keyword Research Tools at Pubcon, and it's extremely powerful.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

A WebmasterWorld thread has a great run down of the frustration many search marketers have to deal with when it comes to advertising with Microsoft adCenter.

The user interface within the advertising console clearly frustrates most search marketers. They say it takes them at least twice as long to manage a campaign in adCenter than it does with Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing. The page to page load times are slow, the features are sometimes found in obscure locations and the campaign management is not as intuitive, according to some SEMs.

But yet, many SEMs love the ROI they see from Microsoft adCenter and Live Search. Some say they have the best ROI because they currently do not have "low quality affiliates" messing with their inventory. Both Google and Yahoo have large publisher networks, which many advertisers find to mess with their conversions and quality. Microsoft has yet to open their publisher network, aka ContentAds, to the public. They are testing the ContentAds program with internal Microsoft sites and selected and trusted publishers. It is because of that, impressions will be lower than at Google and Yahoo, but some SEMs say the quality is much higher.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Microsoft adCenter announced that it has new features for campaign management, including immediate editorial feedback on ads and keywords, a daily budget for campaigns, campaign importing tools that are compatible with AdWords Editor, and reporting access, among other nice features.

This is great, and it's certainly a step in the right direction. Forum members feel that adCenter still needs some of the fundamentals for improvement, however:

They seem to miss some basics I would really like to see such at totals for cost, clicks, impressions ctr etc. on campaign and ad group level pages.

What do you think about the adCenter changes? Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

There are unconfirmed reports from DigitalPoint Forums that Microsoft is going to upgrade adCenter soon to support daily budgeting.

Currently, I believe, adCenter only has a way to set a budget at the month level. You can supposedly set a "daily limit" but that will pause your campaigns based on the monthly average.

This new feature should give advertisers more granular control over their campaign finances.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

In May, Barry reported that MSN adCenter would be offering an accreditation program. At this time, it's only available in beta to customers residing in the US, according to adCenterEU. By the end of this year, it will also be rolled out to UK customers.

The program is called adExcellence. US users interested in opting-in can sign up on the pilot program sign-up page.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

An advertiser using MSN adCenter has a product listed for $69.99. However, he can't actually feature the price in the ad because the number "69" is not allowed.

I tried to update an ad this morning with the price of the product in the ad. I couldn't list the price, $69.99, because 69 is not allowed. Forget that it's part of a price. No 69's allowed. They can't even write their software to figure out this is part of the price.

Oops.

As someone suggests, perhaps this can be flagged for review instead of automatically being filtered.

It does raise an interesting point though - the difficulties of filtering content whilst allowing users to perform basic actions. [space]swearword[space] is a fairly simple one - I think that less obvious issues such as 69 or S#*$!horpe should be 'flagged' up rather than automatically filtered.

I think that's a fair point. Really, not all of us are thinking about what 69 means to some people. ;)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

This post was composed on October 1st and is scheduled for publication on October 4th.

On WebmasterWorld, a number of webmasters have seen an abnormal number of clicks from Microsoft's IPs since August 1st. Interestingly enough, the clicks are going to PPC links and not organic links, so it's not simply a spider.

A number of suspicions arose: perhaps AdCenter reps are clicking on these links (since they get a percentage of what their customers spend on PPC campaigns) or perhaps there is some sort of intrusion and a third party is using Microsoft's IP addresses to generate artificial traffic.

adCenter411 then updated the thread and has asked the affected webmasters for information regarding these clicks. adCenter411 adds that some clicks are used to calculate the relevancy of ads.

However, I do want you to know that that there ARE some clicks coming from adCenter that we don’t bill for, such as clicks on ads that originate from our editorial verification system. The editorial verification system routinely checks ads for page relevance and the validity of links and landing pages for ads submitted to the system.

In addition, you can see how we analyze the clicks that come through the system for click quality. Because all clicks might not carry the same value for advertisers, adCenter categorizes the clicks as either standard-quality clicks or low-quality clicks.

-- Low quality clicks are clicks which adCenter classifies as non-billable. Low quality clicks originate from a variety of sources including: clicks suggesting low commercial intent, clicks that have been identified as likely coming from automated bots, or clicks showing unusual and suspicious patterns of behavior.

-- Standard quality clicks on the other hand are of value to advertisers and are the clicks advertisers are billed for.

You can add low-quality clicks to your reports through the adCenter reporting tab in the user interface.

Anyone affected by these abnormal clicks is encouraged to submit a request for an investigation using one of the links below:

U.S.: http://support.adcenter.msn.com/contactus.aspx?productkey=Adcenterss&locale=en-us
U.K.: http://support.adcenter.msn.com/contactus.aspx?productkey=Adcenterss&locale=en-uk
Canada (English): http://support.adcenter.msn.com/contactus.aspx?productkey=Adcenterss&locale=en-ca
Canada (French): http://support.adcenter.msn.com/contactus.aspx?productkey=Adcenterss&locale=fr-ca
France: http://support.adcenter.msn.com/contactus.aspx?productkey=Adcenterss&locale=fr-fr
Singapore: http://support.adcenter.msn.com/contactus.aspx?productkey=Adcenterss&locale=en-sg

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Search Engine Watch Forums member Discovery shares an email he received from Microsoft. In the email, there are a number of features that will enhance adCenter:

Save time with fast and thorough editorial reviews for new ad groups.

Create campaigns with ease by quickly importing campaigns directly from other paid search programs or by copying existing ad groups within adCenter to a new campaign.

Instantly navigate to specific accounts, campaigns, or ad groups with the new adCenter home page dashboard, a one-stop-shop for all of your daily campaign management tasks.

Update keyword bids in bulk and view keyword performance on the same page.

Visualize your campaigns' targeting settings with Microsoft Virtual EarthTM map integration for geographical targeting.

For details on how to use these adCenter improvements view the Feature Release Guide. In addition, the adCenter Blog will highlight detailed feature reviews after the upgrade occurs.

As adCenter411 writes in WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums, and DigitalPoint Forums, the downtime is expected to begin this evening (6PM Pacific/9PM Eastern/2AM GMT) and may last up to 8 hours.

But the Search Engine Watch Forums thread discusses these features in more detail.

Forum members are extremely excited about the ability to import campaign data from other paid programs. They're happy that Microsoft is listening to their desired changes.

The only thing left for some is an offline editor. I guess that could be in the works too, right?

Forum discussion continues at Search Engine Watch Forums, and announcements are posted at WebmasterWorld, Search Engine Watch Forums, and DigitalPoint Forums.

adCenterEU has updated us on the adCenter bulk import draft problem, saying at a WebmasterWorld thread that the problem will be resolved in a "month or so."

Microsoft will be adding new functionality to make it easier and quicker to import campaigns and mark those campaigns from the "draft" status to the live status.

adCenterEU, Microsoft's official adCenter representative, said:

Watch out for this capability in a release scheduled within the next month or so.

So I am expecting the release within the month of September.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

In the Copyright & Trademarks: What SEMs Should Know session from SES San Jose last week, adCenter announced they have a new policy on how they will be handling trademark complaints.

Instead of them being the go between, between affiliates and advertisers, they are kind of going to take a step back and let the two duke it out.

Microsoft then announced the change on their blog.

Microsoft adCenter will no longer attempt to mediate affiliate compliance by creating lists of trademark-owner approved advertisers who can bid on trademarked keywords. Support teams will be contacting those trademark owners who have provided affiliate documentation previously to explain this policy update and answer questions.

If you have a trademark issue, you now need to use this form.

WebmasterWorld moderator, Receptional, said:

Not sure this will upset agencies looking after client trademarks too much. This seems to me like the onus is on the advertiser to stick to their trademark rights, but trademark owners will still be able to protect their marks as and when.

Skibum adds an important point:

Microsoft is Microsoft so they can do whatever they want but this sounds confusing and inconsistent.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

adCenterEU confirmed in a WebmasterWorld thread that in the next "couple weeks" they should have an announcement regarding fixing the issue with the draft setting after conducting a bulk import in adCenter.

The problem, as summarized in the thread:

Loving Adcenter but hating pressing 'continue' hundreds of times to get a campaign up and running after a bulk import. To get rid of the 'Draft' setting.

adCenterEU said he/she "should have some news in the next couple of weeks."

Sounds exciting.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

If you notice dashes in the place of the numbers in your adCenter statistics reports, then no need to worry.

In a WebmasterWorld thread, adCenterEU explained that the dashes represent that there was a timeout failure between the reporting and the database.

All you need to do is refresh the page and hopefully those pesky little dashes will be replaced by real numbers.

adCenterEU said:

If that's in the interface then refresh your page a couple of times.

Sometimes, for what ever reason, there may be a break in the connection to the DB so instead of a timeout message you'll see some dashes.

Try refreshing the page and let me know...

Forum discussion WebmasterWorld.

Has anyone created any campaigns in MSN adCenter but all keywords and ads are still "pending?" That's what happened to one guy at WebmasterWorld. According to him, the "editorial review [appears to be] grinding to a halt."

adCenterEU confirms his suspicions. There is an increased volume of campaigns lately and the editorial staff is overwhelmed with the requests, it seems.

We are experiencing a large number of submissions currently and the team is working hard to ensure we get everything processed as quickly as possible.

I'll let you know when we're back to normal.

This is good for MSN, I guess, but it's not so good for the advertisers who have to wait. It is nice to see Microsoft getting so many requests, but it is sad that they cannot support an increased volume of requests. This means advertisers have to wait while their ads are being approved which may encourage them to spend more time with Google and Yahoo.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Yesterday, Digg made an announcement that it dropped Google as its advertising partner and has chosen to sign a three-year exclusive advertising deal with Microsoft. Search Engine Land quotes Microsoft's Steve Berkowitz about the move:

Our collaboration with Digg is about bringing our advertising technology and sales force to one of the fastest-growing sites on the Web and a true innovator in user-generated content. We believe advertisers will welcome Microsoft and Digg's combined strengths to forge more meaningful connections online.

DigitalPoint Forums members believe that this might mean that Microsoft will acquire Digg, but I'm not so sure.

WebmasterWorld takes a more rational approach. They have an understanding of the Digg community (Digg loves Google but is not so keen on Microsoft), and the story on Digg initially reflected that but people started simmering down as their comments got buried. ;)

Cre8asite Forums members echo the anti-Microsoft sentiment. And what Administrator Adrian said is very true:

I expect a lot of Digg fans will find some way to rationalise it. It's how they are, they're a big crowd of sheep in a way. If someone like Kevin Rose says "Microsoft's cool, we're going to use them for our ads", I reckon a decent sized portion of the Digg crowd would go with it.

I totally see that. Everyone follows Kevin Rose. Even I do.

On Sphinn, the story is a bit different. Search Engine Land writers had the story as did many other prominent blogs. But they were embargoed until 3PM EST. Did Kevin Rose break his embargo? It seems that he did -- two hours earlier. Oops.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint, WebmasterWorld, Cre8asite Forums, and Sphinn.

Microsoft Office Live's adManager Beta search advertising service will be adding Ask Sponsored Listings, allowing for advertisers to display ads on both MSN and Ask.com. Over at WebmasterWorld, martinibuster links to an InformationWeek article that has more:

The addition of Ask.com's sites to its paid search service will expose Microsoft's customer listings to an additional 5% of search traffic.

That takes Microsoft's network a step closer to Yahoo, which in June captured 25.1% of all search traffic.

Numerous advertisers are looking forward to trying out the new MSN and Ask.com and think that it could even be a competitor to Google in the future if other search engines are included in their advertising structure:

Maybe if Microsoft heaps a few more 2nd tier search engines into AdCenter, and incentivise a lot more searches outside of the gaming industry, then they might be able to contend with Yahoo for a distant second to Google.

There are definitely increased marketing opportunities for advertisers and the reach should be greater with a larger user base. As Barry quotes James Speer of IAC at Search Engine Land, the Ask.com Sponsored Network reaches 59 million people. Good stuff.

For more information, check this page.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

In June, Microsoft adCenter postponed maintenance, but it appears that it's about to happen. adCenterEU posted on WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, and Search Engine Watch Forums about upcoming maintenance to be held on Saturday, July 14.

adCenterEU writes:

Microsoft adCenter will be unavailable during an upgrade this Saturday, July 14, beginning at 10:00 A.M. Pacific Time (18:00 P.M. GMT), and continuing for up to 14 hours. During this time, your current keywords and ads will continue to run normally; however, you will not be able to access adCenter.

Please make any needed changes to your account beforehand if possible.

After the scheduled maintenance, reporting may be delayed for up to 24 hours. On the adCenter Reporting tab please check the timestamp at the bottom of the page to see when the data was last updated.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, DigitalPoint Forums, and Search Engine Watch Forums.