Kanoodle.com, Inc., today announces that MSNBC.com has selected Kanoodle’s ContextTarget(TM) as its exclusive provider of content-targeted sponsored links. Kanoodle won the MSNBC deal away from Google Advertising, gearing up for what may become a little battle between the two in the upcoming months.
DMNews reports “While they compete for distribution, Google and Kanoodle have taken different approaches to determining the most relevant listing for a Web page. Google uses its algorithmic search technology to scan each content page, while Kanoodle maps Web sites into topic categories.”
Kanoodle expects confront Google in the upcoming weeks with the launch of a self-service publisher program that will allow smaller sites to sign up on their own to carry ContextTarget listings. AdSense has offered such a service over the past 9 months, signing up thousands of publishers and backed by the Google AdWords advertsing program with tens of thousands of advertisers.
Under the terms of the deal, Kanoodle will provide its ContextTarget sponsored links throughout MSNBC.com, which features partner content from NBC’s Dateline, the Today Show and Nightly News as well as Newsweek, The Washington Post and others
“Kanoodle’s ContextTarget offers the most relevant ads for our site because it relies on a topic-based targeting system, not a dynamic keyword guess, which we believe will add the most value for our users without jeopardizing our editorial integrity,” said Charlie Tillinghast, General Manager, MSNBC.com. “The Kanoodle team has a proven track record of effectively managing a large scale implementation and we’re looking forward to working with them.”
“Adding MSNBC to our ContextTarget network means our advertisers will now have access to one of the highest quality audiences on the Web,” said Lance Podell, president of Kanoodle. “In fewer than three short months, we’ve quickly built an industry leading product that has been well received by advertisers and top-tier publishers like MSNBC.”
