Facebook struck a deal in August 2006 to place Microsoft ads on the site.
"Netscape mooned the giant, " says one Google exec, noting Google welcomes Microsoft ads on its site.
Oh, yeah, Yahoo and Microsoft sell ads, too, but there is no doubt about who has the mojo.
Microsoft announced Monday that it's introducing new measures on its Live Search application that would erase identifying data from search logs 18 months after it's recorded and will allow users to surf sites with Microsoft-provided ads without having their behavior tracked.
Apple fans, likewise, aren't going to be convinced by Microsoft's latest ads to switch either.
Microsoft already serves up ads for popular networks such as Facebook and bought a stake in the firm last year.
Bach said Microsoft is experimenting with integrating ads and games, so users don't view them as nuisances.
By upgrading its display ads offering, Microsoft may be able to increase not only the revenue per page view but also the total number of page views through which it serves display ads.
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While the jury is still out on whether the campaign will lead to increased market share, it was reported recently that Microsoft had been mimicking the ads on its own Web site, supposedly quoting people who had moved from Mac to Windows.
The Web portal, along with rivals Google and Microsoft, aims to innovate digital ads and work with brands to better connect to consumers.
The deal between Microsoft, the Justice Department and state attorneys general blunts what Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt may have feared could evolve into a thrust by Microsoft into its lucrative business of selling ads against online search results.
Mr. Mayer also found supercookies on Microsoft's advertising network, which places ads for other companies across the Internet.
Microsoft plans to take that on directly with ads featuring people who declare their allegiance to Windows proudly.
It's no accident that the word "Microsoft" doesn't appear in Xbox ads.
Microsoft is more interested in selling premium online ads, which run on highly trafficked areas such as the MSN home page or are shown on its Xbox 360 video game console.
"Selling online ads is not a typical business for Microsoft, " Rosoff says.
After some complaints from customers, Microsoft reassured users that it is investing in its display ads solution and improving the customer targeting technology available to advertisers as well as making the overall design easier to use.
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This summer, ProPublica detailed how Microsoft and Yahoo are now allowing advertisers to target specific people with ads if they know their email addresses.
Microsoft has continued to jab at Google over perceived privacy violations with ads like the Gmail Man series, and Google has faced a variety of privacy investigations and fines from governments around the world.
FORBES: Google Is Very Creepy, And That's What Makes It So Awesome
Yet Merrill encouraged precisely that approach, running ads in a magazine for the PRO Sports Club, where Microsoft gives 17, 000 employees memberships.
Yahoo's revenue from search ads has grown in recent quarters, benefiting from guaranteed payments from Microsoft, which shares ad revenue with Yahoo, and a rise in the number of times people click on the search ads.
Still, if Microsoft were to declare that banners, boxes and other non-premium display ads have negligible value of their won, that would pose a problem for companies like Facebook, Yahoo and AOL, which depend heavily on that kind of high-volume, low-c0st advertising.
While AOL tries to revamp its business model to focus on display ads, it faces stiff competition from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!
Google acted after rivals, including Yahoo and Microsoft, made similar moves as the FDA began publicly pressuring sites to accept only drug ads from licensed Internet pharmacies.
But if past Windows launches are any guide, Microsoft will help its cause by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on high-profile TV ads, viral whisper campaigns and "co-marketing" money for its PC hardware partners and the resellers who push Microsoft software to big corporations.
Microsoft continues to push more and more of its business into the cloud, and its recent TV ads certainly added to the consumer-level buzz about (if not richer understanding of) cloud computing.
Based on the company's "help wanted" ads, Google seemed to be working on a set of programs that would compete with Microsoft 's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Office suite.
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said the number of cell phones that can receive rich media ads is going to triple in the next couple of years.
Meanwhile, Moore jibed at Microsoft (and implicitly, Google), by noting that the company, while running Facebook's ads, has a conflict of interest in the advertising business because it has purchased advertising agencies.
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