Adobe & Yahoo! Trying To Help Make Us More Money

I love advertising.

More specifically, I love ads.

I think it’s a shame that advertisers are only restricted to TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and cell phones. To Web sites, pop-ups, billboards, airline tray tables, blimps, and beach planes. To the shirts, hats, bags and even the bare backs of major athletes. And still, I can’t get enough.

No. I mean it. I wish I could TiVo them. I love the Geico cavemen. I love the three boys returning to school with their new backpacks, paid for by MasterCard. I miss the old Alka-Seltzer commercials, because those people with hangovers and gas always looked more miserable than I ever could. But then, I was ten, and at least six months away from my first hangover.

I wish there were more places for ads. On my drapes. On my windows. On my pillows. On the foreheads of my friends and children. Go for it! Put one of those big ol’ Mail Pouch ads on the side of my house! Just pay me, and you’re in.

So I was thrilled with the news that Adobe (ADBE) and Yahoo! (YHOO) joined together to launch Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo!. And don’t take my introduction as sarcasm. It’s just me screaming out that I know so little about technology I can only make fun of it. With a roll-off-the-tongue carpal-tunnel name, Ads for Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo! (AAPDFPY!) is an opt-in service that allows publishers to drive new revenue with contextual ads. “The service has the potential to offer readers access to more free content, enhanced with ads that match their interests,” according to the company.

To join the AAPDFPY! program, publishers must register online, and then upload their Adobe PDF content so that it can be ad-enabled before distributing PDFs. Ads can only be displayed within Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, in a panel adjacent to the content so that they do not disrupt the viewing experience. Every time the PDF content is viewed, contextual ads are dynamically matched to the content of the document. The publisher can then monitor performance through detailed reports. Cool, huh?

So how is the AAPDFPY! launch going? Cynthia Tillo, Senior Product Manager with Adobe, told this blogger really well.

“We have seen interest from all types of publishers,” she said. Publishers of “eBooks, nonprofits, magazines, technical journals, educational institutions and bloggers, to name a few. Some of the more surprising ones include companies who want to include Yahoo! ads in their own marketing collateral and one individual who wants to include ads in his resume! The potential of users being able to access more content for free is actually a reality. One of the great eBooks that used to be sold for fee is Kevin Kelly's True Films, a review of the best documentary films, and it is now available for free: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/002538.php. We have another publisher who plans to get rid of their annual subscription model and make available thousands of PDF reports for free, in exchange for ad revenue.”

To read more about the launch, click here:

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200711/112907Yahoo.html