Contextual Ads and New Players

If you have been watching the Internet marketing scene like a good watchdog, you would notice that lately contextual ads are no longer a monopoly held by Google.

Although Google are still way ahead of the competition, website publishers should start noticing that there's a growing list of new players coming on or planning to hit the contextual ads arena sooner or later.

We already have Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN), Kontera and Chitika and some other smaller players in the field. Next, watch eBay and Microsoft as they work on their betas.

IntelliTXT, with their unique brand of contextual ads that appear in a "video balloon," have caught the eye. Pioneered by Vibrant Media, IntelliTXT launched in 2004.

How would this affect website publishers? My take is that there'll be more choices (obviously) and just in case you get banned by Google, you still have somewhere to go. Oh, what a thought!