Ask.com prepares to dominate Google’s Adwords…

…or at the very least, they are launching their own contextual ad network.  And it actually sounds pretty slick.  And I am going to give it a shot myself and report back on results in a future post.  And congrats to Ask.com for at least trying and at launching something.  As I’ve stated before, the more competition in this space, the better things get for small businesses.

Straight from the horses mouth:

“It’s no longer a rumor and definitely not a beta launch. Today’s announcement of the Ask Sponsored Listings contextual product is the real deal. First came Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) 1.0 in August, 2005. Next came ASL 2.0 in October, 2006. Now comes the next innovative product offering with the Ask Sponsored Listings contextual product launching in less than four weeks.

How is this product different from our competitors, you ask? Three important reasons, each one a paradigm shift:

* It gives publishers more control over yield and relevancy
* It gives publishers more creative ad unit opportunities
* It allows both advertisers and publishers more control over where and what ads are displayed

We’ll be working with publishers to customize their implementations with some of the following options:

* New customized relevancy thresholds for publishers
* Innovative yield management thresholds that allow publishers to optimize their monetization efforts

You won’t find the standard white background with text ads. Our hybrid text + graphical contextual units will offer a fresh new look to performance based contextual advertising.“

All the power to them.