Snap.com will launch the Snap Shots Ad Network Monday at Ad:Tech, a new program that allows advertisers and ad networks to deliver context-based ads to Snap Shots users.
Snap Shots, for those not familiar with the service, are the little site preview windows that pop up on websites with the service enabled, mouse over the image at the end of this link to Snap.com for a demo.
Under the new program, each time a Snap Shot is triggered, the Snap Shot window reveals both the information the user specifically requests and a context-based ad centered directly where the viewer’s eyes are focused. The focus of the ads is said to be better as the are contextually served against a specific link, ignoring other information on the same page that may otherwise result is lower quality contextual results.
Snap.com has over 2,000,000 Web site operators, bloggers and individual Web surfers currently using Snap Shots served via a webpage or browser. The Snap Shots service is used approximately 15 million times daily and is available in 43 different languages.
The Snap Shots Ad Network will initially offer three ad formats that include simple banners and text to expandable rich media, with ad serving provided by DoubleClick.
They should come up with some type of revenue sharing for website owners who use their service
They should come up with some type of revenue sharing for website users who have to clear the ads while reading the page.
Makes me thinks Snap Shots are an even worse idea than I though before.
Could it be btw that Snap does some kind of IP-tracking to see if a visitor is US based? Because in the example Snap enabled link I didn’t see an ad.
I’m confused – the language makes it sound that 2 million active users (be it users or websites). And yet it only generates 15 million views a day? That seems excessively low.
I bet click through rates will be horrible.
Is it going to be $/View or $/Click… If it is going to Pay per click, i also dont see the possibility of the success of this scheme…
I absolutely loath Snap. I went as so far to block it on my router. It’s absolutely useless.
I was wondering how Snap was planning to make money…anyways, I am removing Snap from my site because of this, the last thing I want is to have my visitors see some ads.
http://snapsucks.org/
@8 I see what you mean.. dont want visitors coming to your site only do be see another ad :S
Too late! We have taken over ads!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
We are ‘hell-bent’ on succeeding in ads …
We just had our FAD (Financial Analysts Day) in Redmond, Wash; and what a FAD we had!
I threw out a couple of crowd pleasing zingers, like I tend to do and the crowd of employees went crazy!
Doing my patented “preacher karate chop” in the air, I whipped arround and screamed:”We are hell-bent and determined to allocate the talent! the resources! the money! the innovation to absolutely become a powerhouse in the ad business! Say yeeees!”
Ray Ozzie and Bill did a little dance in the aisle.
I then did a linebacker stance and exclaimed:
“We are tackling disruptive technology changes head-on, namely the shift to advertising-supported Web services!” Then I stomped on a styrofoam Google logo!
The crowd was going ape!
I wound it up with the old pep-rally arm wave while chanting:
“We are going to be an advertising com-pa-ny,
and we are going to be a devices com-pa-ny!”
The whole crowd joined in;
“We are going to be an advertising com-pa-ny,
and we are going to be a devices com-pa-ny!”
“We are going to be an advertising com-pa-ny,
and we are going to be a devices com-pa-ny!”
“We are going to be an advertising com-pa-ny,
and we are going to be a devices com-pa-ny!”
I did my running skip (high fiving everyone) off stage …..
Whew! That was some FAD!
i find the snap ads very annoying, so have turned them off
I think its a good idea as long as they make it so that the bloggers make some money out of this.
If you don’t have Snap on your site then it really does not matter if they have ads or not, does it?
I agree with #13.
Thanks for the post Duncan. With the launch of contextual ads the questions of “what’s in it for the blogger / publisher?” are very appropriate. We plan to share advertising impressions with the websites that use Snap so that we are “in it together”. Snap will be releasing more information on this very soon (hours).
Thanks
Look forward to that Tom, thanks for addressing it
Reading these comments, I’m glad I’m not the only one who hates Snap. It seems people love every new widget they can get their hands on, no matter how much unnecessary crawling it does, how much extra bandwidth it eats up, or how long it slows down a site.
@ Tom
You guys obviously have incredible implementation and execution skills. I wish you could find something to do that’s more useful and less annoying.
Great, just what we need, more ad popups…
No offense, but I hate you. I’d probably even rate you on my list of most hated people/things. Probably below Hitler, but definitely above carnies.
Let’s be honest here: over 90% of those 15 million daily uses are people like me accidentally clicking on them when trying to get back to a page.
@ 4 / AhmedF: A ratio of 15 million views to 2 million users (or about 7 to 1) may seem low but it is actually better than many of the blogging platforms which are about at 3 page views per visit. Check out compete.com
Mike – I’m not sure I follow.
Lets say I install it on my computer (extension). You are counting me as a user. Are you telling me I will only view 7 pages during the course of a day? Or that the average website only averages 7 pageviews a day? (as I assume each pageview loads up Snap and constitutes a ‘hit’)
Snap ads are probably my least favorite part of reading techcrunch.
errr… am I the only won who thinks this is sorta cool? If I have a blog entry with a link to a youtube video, I don’t want people leaving my site… this keeps them there and posts ads.
I am looking to implement a contextual advert program soon, does this really turn you off THAT much? i was also looking at vibrant and kontera… thoughts?