Yahoo! has announced the upcoming launch of a new display advertising ad type called SmartAds.
SmartAds allows agencies and advertisers to create an ad template that has “variables” in the data that can be changed depending on the user’s information. So, if you’re located in Los Angeles, you may get an ad that talks about great flight deals leaving Los Angeles in the ad. It essentially allows display ads to offer more relevance to users, which is always a good thing. Both users and advertisers should benefit from this.
It will be rolled out with a few airline advertisers first, and then hit more industries over the year.
UPDATE:
Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 offers the best analysis of the SmartAds announcement I’ve seen thus far.