Ask.com Advertising Feed In Limbo
Even “reduced” Ask.com feed may disappear.
A number of domain parking firms were delivered a blow as of the first of this month when Ask.com discontinued syndicating its Google advertising feed. These parking firms were left with two options: take Ask.com’s own advertising feed (which has low click prices) or switch to another ad provider.
Not coincidentally, Skenzo jumped to Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) this month.
But a number of parking firms still use the Ask.com feed as a backup. That may not be an option in the near future.
Ask.com just disclosed a layoff and a change to its strategy. It will now focus on “married women looking for help managing their lives.” (Seriously, I’m not making this stuff up.) Current advertisers will jump ship if their products aren’t related to this narrow topic, and it’s unclear if the firm’s pay-per-click advertising program will continue. Even if it does, it will be hard to apply this to the array of topics at parked domain names.
This leaves domain name parking firms with few options. The heavyweight ad providers remain Yahoo and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Depending on how Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) buyout attempt proceeds, hopefully we’ll see a Microsoft advertising feed in the near future.
