Forum Moderators: open
Online retailer Amazon.com has filed for a patent on a method for auctioning Web advertisements, a move that raises questions about the company's interest in the ad market.
The e-commerce giant, which sells limited advertising space on its Web site, recently filed with the United States Patent and Trademark office for a patent that deals with Internet ads. The application was updated Friday.Internet media executives say Amazon has not presented such an offering to the ad-buying community. Instead, they say, the proposed method takes a page from cost-per-click advertising with search engines such as Overture and Google. One of the hottest segments in the industry, cost-per-click advertising lets marketers bid for placement in search results related to specific keywords; those results are displayed on a network of popular sites such as Yahoo and MSN.
