Blog search engine Technorati today announced that it has acquired AdEngage, a small, Los Angeles-based online advertising network. Technorati launched its own ad network in June, but focused mostly on large, high-traffic sites. Now, Technorati will release a new advertising network on top of the AdEngage platform which will be open to all publishers who fulfill Technorati’s basic quality standards. AdEngage will continue to exist as a standalone business, while the newly created Technorati Engage will focus only on blogs and social media sites.
AdEngage was founded in 2004 and, according to Technorati, serves more than 12 billion ads on over 4,000 sites each year.
It’s important to point out that a large part of AdEngage’s business comes from adult sites (2112 out of 3577 currently active sites are classified as adult). This is probably the main reason why Technorati decided to let AdEngage continue to operate under its own name for now.
Self-Serve Advertising
Technorati will first launch the new advertising network as a private alpha, focusing mostly on text ads. Next month, the site will launch publicly and Technorati will add 125×125 image ads as well.
Bloggers are always looking for new ways to monetize their traffic and having another option from a large and respected company like Technorati should draw in quite a few publishers. Most small blogs currently rely on Google AdSense for their income, but a lot of bloggers have also been complaining about the low income they receive from running these ads. Judging from what we have seen so far, Technorati’s offering might be a compelling alternative to Google’s AdSense, especially for smaller sites.
