Mobile ad network launched by Yahoo

Online giant Yahoo is the latest company to branch out to mobile advertising. With the launch of the Yahoo! Mobile Publisher Services, the company is reaching out to online advertisers, publishers and content producers in a big way.

by Kristina Knight

The suite of services will allow online publishers, content providers and advertisers the ability to serve ads and other content to mobile consumers.

First, the mobile ad network. It will give mobile publishers the ability to serve syndicated ads through phones. Marketers can select specific ad formats - display, sponsored links, mobile video and in-game ad placements - for the ads. The first ads are expected to go live in Q2.

The suite also has a content engine that allows publishers to submit a catalog of content (classified listings, articles, etc) that will be made available to users on mobile devices. Tied to that is a media directory for ringtones, games, mobi-video and other applications that can be made available for users.

Finally, the suite of services allows marketers to submit the mobile site for indexing so that users can find them through Yahoo! oneSearch. Yahoo began pushing the oneSearch offering, which gives sponsored listings to mobile search inquiries, in January.

Mobile advertising is expected to make huge gains over the next few years, growing to $2.9 billion by 2011.