AdSense Alternative: Microsoft Advertising Center – Search Ads & Content Ads

Microsoft launched their AdCenter Microsoft Advertising Center – Search Ads & Content Ads back in 2004, and added Content Ads (the MSN rival to AdSense) in Beta-test mode for use of only USA and Canadian webmasters in October 2006.

As I write, one year later, they are still in Beta-test mode!

So, maybe they will be the best thing since sliced bread, maybe not, but, as yet, most people do not know.

They should, of course, be mega-successful as a part of the MSN network but the fact that they have been testing for so long does tend to suggest that all is not well with the Content Ads program (you can see the differences by clicking the linked title).

Some cynics have suggested that MSN (and also Yahoo, see below) are wary of launching a direct competitor to AdSense, because they know that they will get a bloody nose!

I don’t know about that, but MSN’s Advertising Center baby must surely be destined to be one of the best looking ever based on the gestation period, if it is ever successfully launched!