Yahoo No. 1 in Display Ads? Surely You Can't Be Serious.

February 1, 2008 at 12:34 pm PT

… I am serious. And stop calling me Shirley.

Well this is interesting, given the big news of the day. According to new research from comScore, Yahoo is the Web’s No. 1 publisher of display ads. The company’s network of sites claimed 18.8% of display ad views in November. In contrast, Fox Interactive Media claimed 16.3%, Microsoft 6.7%, Facebook 1.5% and Google 1.0%.

Tagged with: advertising, comScore, Facebook, Fox, Google, John Paczkowski, Microsoft, Yahoo

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http://allthingsd.com/ bob sacco

Dear John,

Yes, Yahoo! may have the largest percentage display ads overall at the moment, but there is David arriving in this David & Goliath story. Perhaps I should refer to David in the plural and they are just starting to hit the radar on your comScore chart.

David(s) comes in the form of vertical ad networks. No, not the remnant horizontal ad networks that serve up the junk-food inventory. It’s the vertical ad networks exclusively representing the long-tail of the sites within the content vertical.

For example, companies like Glam Media, JumpStart Automotive media (AUTO) , Netshelter (TECH) and Travel Ad Network (TRAVEL) are are becoming the #1 display audiences in their respective categories and garnering Goliath-like ad revenues.

With portals becoming irrelevant, and search engines not capable of servicing display advertising adequately, will the Goliaths become prey to David’s well-aimed slingshot?