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Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Yahoo!, Search

Yahoo! announces SmartAds Ad Delivery Platform

yahoo smart adsTables have turned since the ousting of former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, with Jerry Yang regaining control, companies have been bought, and Yahoo is again heading upward. One area still lacks however, advertising.

Yahoo has been slow to market with their online advertising solutions. Microsoft and especially Google still have them beat in this area. Is that about to change? Yahoo has developed some kind of patent pending "SmartAds". This new ad platform will allow marketers to deliver powerful and direct ads to a highly targeted audience. The new technology will automatically convert marketer's creative campaign elements with targeted offerings, and turn them into some kind of highly customized and relevant display ad. The SmartAds are powered by Yahoo's demographic and geographic targeting capabilities. So for example, if a user did a simple search for Pizza, and they had Santa Monica selected as their default location in Yahoo Weather, an appropriate ad would be put together and served based on what Yahoo has compiled on the user.

Yahoo has done their research, and believes this is what marketers want from online advertising. Can this new tailored approach that customizes marketing messages based on consumers help Yahoo in their quest to gain strength in the online advertising realm? Sounds very promising. Nobody wants untargeted ads appearing all the time, that just distracting. But display an ad that speaks directly to me and although scary, I might be enticed click it.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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