Business 2.0

Putting Online Ads in Context


Overture and Google have figured out how to sell the Web. Paid search has already saved Yahoo -- and your business might be next. The long-awaited "30-second spot for the Web" -- a way for ads to finally work online -- may well be at hand. Overture (OVER), the company some say saved Yahoo's (YHOO) bacon, will shortly roll out a service that opens up the entire Web to a new form of advertising. "It's potentially revolutionary," says Scott Moore, who oversees Slate and MSNBC.com for Microsoft (MSFT). How revolutionary? Moore says using Overture's new service, or one like it, could well push his sites to sustained profitability.