It's no shocker to anyone following the Pay Per Click industry that Yahoo! faces some very stiff competition from Microsoft, which launched its new AdCenter system in the United States a few weeks ago, and Google, which has the largest share of the search ad market. Simply put, Yahoo! is a bit behind, and now seeks to catch up.

This past week Yahoo! announced their plans for implementing a new ad system, which is said to offer enhanced ease of use, advanced testing features, geo-targeting, and automated analytics. Yahoo!'s new ad system, scheduled to launch in the third quarter, is designed to let marketers target prospective consumers not only by the search terms that people use, but also by their demographics, location, and most importantly what they do on other areas of the Yahoo! network.

That's right, Yahoo! plans on leveraging its millions of registered users and broad network of services to improve its advertising sales. There are so many things a person can do on Yahoo!'s network with a Yahoo! ID, and with that there is so much the network can tell Yahoo! Search Marketing about each of its users. The new ad system will allow Yahoo! to analyze its users, based off of information found on its network, and then distribute advertisements according to each user's intent to buy products and services.

For instance, if a registered Yahoo! user were to search "things to do in Illinois", Yahoo! Search Marketing will now be able to consult with its network sites such as Yahoo! Travel, learn that this user is planning a trip to Chicago, and thus provide him/her with advertisements tailored to Chicago, Illinois... instead of say Springfield, Illinois.

A great idea if you ask me.

There are 2 facts to consider. One... online advertising is estimated at more than $30 billion a year and growing, and two... Yahoo! has more users than any website on the net. This new kind of advertising targeting, if harnessed correctly, will outdo every other PPC advertising model available and deliver relevant advertising better than keyword searches ever could.

We are no doubt seeing the beginning of what we can expect in the future from PPC search advertising and individualized / personalized searching. I just never would have thought that it would have come from Yahoo!. Kudos to you, Yahoo!.