MSN AdCenter Contextual Ads Running on Cartoon Barry Blog

I was running through some search blogs tonight and came across Cartoon Barry, Barry Schwartz’s search marketing and semi-personal blog, and found that Barry is running ads that look very much like Google AdSense. But they are not AdSense, they are powered by MSN and formatted in a really cool fashion!

Directly above the Google AdSense ads (thanks to lax TOS), Barry is serving MSN Content Advertising ads from the (Microsoft seems to have two or three names for all of their products and services), which are part of the Microsoft Advertising Network.

Microsoft Content Advertising is in limited testing for a handful of publishers, expanding in the same slow fashion that Yahoo Publisher Network rolled out a while back.

From the Microsoft AdCenter Community :

Microsoft’s self-serve advertising offering for publishers is still under development and is currently in a private pilot phase, being tested by select publishers who met the participation requirements. The private pilot phase began earlier this year. A private, phased approach allows us to learn more about customer interest in content advertising and provide guidance as to how we can improve the product and deliver the right features required to meet publisher and advertiser needs.

Want to join Barry and be a publisher in the Microsoft adCenter Publisher Program? Then fill out this Publisher Program Interest Form.