elsewhen - 10:00 am on Jul 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

i dont think the problem is technical at all. not that the project is trivial, but yahoo has more than enough money and ability to pull off a contextual ad program. i suspect that the problem is critical mass. the program only works when there is sufficient advertisers and web real estate to use.

they are probably contacting their big advertisers and trying to sell them on the option to have their ads appear on publisher's sites. they probably promise that the network will be high quality, but since it doesn't exist yet, the advertisers respond... we will check it out when it is ready.

in the end, the problem is "priming the pump" and the way they will probably have to accomplish this is by sweetening the deal for the advertisers (and maybe for publishers too). yahoo might take only a very small percentage to arrive at critical mass quickly while simultaneously grabbing market share. then, slowly, they will start to increase their percentage.

thats the only way i can see it working, and i think it is likely that they will get it to work - there is just too much money to be made to let this slip through their fingers.