Bringing search ads to file sharers
What would happen if you introduced one of the most lucrative business models on the Internet — search-related advertising — to the file-sharing networks that power much of the Net’s underground economy? We’re about to find out. Today, Brand Asset Digital launches a public version of P2Pwords, a service that lets advertisers deliver keyword-triggered pitches through peer-to-peer networks.
As with Google’s AdWords, P2Pwords enables advertisers to target promotional messages to users based on what they’re looking for. Brand Asset Digital’s task is trickier than Google’s because it inserts those messages into the search results delivered by other companies’ programs (e.g., LimeWire). It does so with techniques similar to the ones anti-piracy firms use to prevent people from downloading bootlegged songs, movies and games. Yet AdWords and P2Pwords share a simple but powerful concept: pitches are more likely to work if they’re shown to people hunting for something like the product being advertised. The approach has been so effective for Google, AdWords has practically become a license to print money.
Read Full Story @ LA Times