Want Ads? Ask Jeeves

Less than two weeks after finalizing its acquisition by InterActiveCorp, Ask Jeeves is rolling out paid ad listings on its search engine.

Ask Jeeves announced today that it will be following in the steps of search sites Google and Yahoo by introducing a sponsored advertising network in which companies participate in auctions to have their links associated with specific search requests. Google and Yahoo have been offering paid search listings for some time, and recently Microsoft’s MSN announced plans for a similar advertising service.

In paid listing services, companies pay to have their text links or advertisements associated with specific search requests or search terms; when users enter queries in the search engine for matching items, the paid links are displayed alongside (or among) legitimate search results.

Ironically, Ask Jeeves is no stranger to paid search listing services, as both Ask.com and related sites have been an enthusiastic participant in Google’s network, running Google’s paid links on Ask Jeeves search results pages. In 2004, revenue from Google’s program accounted for over $260 million (70 percent) of Ask Jeeves’s revenue. Ask Jeeves will continue to run Google’s sponsored links through at least 2007, but will put advertisers from its own network in more prominent positions than advertisers from Google’s network.

According to eMarketer.com, paid search listings are thought to account for more than $5 billion of the estimated $12 billion Internet advertising industry. Google is the largest player in the search engine market, with Yahoo following as a close second. Ask Jeeves is typically cited as accounting for 5 to 6 percent of the search marketplace.

Ask Jeeves was recently acquired by media maverick Barry Diller’s InterActiveCorp for $2.3 billion. The company’s Web holdings include diverse properties such as LendingTree, Evite, Match.com, and TicketMaster, and recently approved the spin-off of travel site Expedia.com and related properties into a separate business.