Ads arrive on MSN Mobile in US

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 11 December 2007 00:13

Your IT - Mobility

Microsoft has begun delivering banner and text ads to US users of its MSN Mobile service.

Exactly how this 'optimises the customer experience' (as Microsoft officials put it), we aren't sure.

We suppose it does provide a 'more consistent' experience in that other MSN properties are ad-riddled, but 'more engaging'? Nahhh...

Before anyone accuses us of being hypocritical, we've got nothing against advertising. It pays the bills, and so far it's the only workable model that gives content providers an income without having to receive payments from content consumers.

But let's treat it as what it is - a necessary intrusion - and not pretend that it somehow enriches the content.

But back to MSN Mobile: the advertising system - already running in certain European countries - uses technologies created within Microsoft and acquired with ScreenTonic.

Initial US advertisers include Paramount Pictures and Jaguar Cars.

Microsoft has also added e-commerce features to MSN Mobile in the US, offering movie tickets through MovieTickets.com and ring tones, wallpaper, games, video clips and so on through Thumbplay.

The company also announced the US availability of free daily horoscopes (carrier charges may apply).