Adobe and Yahoo Partner on Embedded PDF Ads

Adobe and Yahoo have announced a new service that will let online publishers put contextual ads next to online PDF content.

If you think online advertisers are always looking for new ways to wheedle their way onto your screens (and into your lives), you’re right: today, Adobe and Yahoo announced a new service designed to let advertisers put contextually-appropriate ads on Web pages next to online PDF content. Adobe and Yahoo are positioning the service as a benefit to consumers, because, by unlocking the advertising potential of those PDF documents, publishers will be in a position to offer online content for free, or at least at reduced prices! However, it might be closer to reality to say that Yahoo and Adobe have figured out a new tactic for extracting money from online advertisers.

“This partnership with Adobe creates a previously untapped opportunity for advertisers to connect with qualified audiences, while opening new revenue streams for publishers, and helping deliver additional relevant content to consumers,” said Yahoo senior VP Todd Teresi,in a statement. “Creating new value with Ads in Adobe PDFs is a natural step forward in Yahoo’s ongoing strategy to enable an array of digital connections between advertisers, publishers, and consumers.”

To participate in the program, publishers have to register with Yahoo, then upload their PDF content before publication so it can be “ad-enabled.” Once that’s done, advertisements from Yahoo ad partners will appear alongside the PDF content within Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat in a panel adjacent to the main content. Every time users open the PDF, new ads are contextually matched to the content. Adobe says the ads do not disrupt the document viewing experience…but given how awkward is already is to access and use PDF documents, we don’t see how ads can’t help but get in the way.

The service is currently open to U.S.-based publishers who produce English language content; Wired and IDG Infoworld are already on board with the program.