Microsoft thinks it has come up with a way to out-Google Google. Target display ads by consumer behavior.
The big software company is going to track the interests of its 263 million Hotmail users and searches on Microsoft Live.
The company says that the personal data being used will be kept confidential. Promises. Promises.
Microsoft claims it has signed up 100 advertisers for the program.
It does not seem like much of a winner. AOL has plenty of e-mail users. So does Yahoo!. So, duplicating the sevice should not be hard for competitors.
Microsoft needs something to help its online ad revenue. In the third quarter it rose only 5% over last year. Rival Google’s ad revenue rose 70% for the same period.
Sort of like hunting an elephant with a sling-shot.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.