Microsoft recently inaugurated the public beta version of PubCenter, its new web advertising solution that lets webmasters set up a dedicated space to display third party advertisement on their websites. The solution is designed to compete with the already widely popular Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network.

As with Adsense and YPN, webmasters will receive a compensation based on the number of impressions or clicks generated by visitors browsing their sites: to improve profitability, the ads are — as visitors would expect — chosen to match the content of the page in which they are being displayed.

Kevin McCabe, senior product manager of PubCenter, announced the move during the AdSpace conference Wednesday. People can sign up for the beta service at the PubCenter site, though it's only open to people in the United States at this stage: an US tax ID is in fact required in order to be able to advertise and display pubCenter ads on a website.

As the PubCenter website recites, webmasters can customize the look and feel of the ads to match the appearance of the site, and will also be able to monitor the performance of the various banners with "a variety of tracking features". As the project is only in its beta stage, Microsoft said that users will be able to influence the direction that pubCenter


should take in the future.

The private beta has been going on for a few months and, along with its introduction, a public blog dedicated to this project was also introduced during the presentation. According to LiveSide.net, Microsoft pubCenter is actively seeking publishers to join and test contextual ads on their sites.

"Some of the features users like so far include the ability to control and customize their ads, to monitor performance of their ads, and to engage with other beta users in discussions about the future of this product," McCabe wrote on the newly inaugurated blog.

While the company's expectations to ultimately be able to compete with Google are high, McCabe warned of uneven performance and functionality given that this is just a beta. "By the time we launch, we plan to offer an excellent, compelling alternative in this competitive field," McCabe said.

The impact that this offering will have in the marketplace is hard to estimate but, as many analysts have already pointed out, considering the market share that LiveSearch holds in the search engine business, it's hard to imagine that pubCenter will be able to pose a serious threat to Google anytime soon.

According to some, in fact, Microsoft has been able to stick around in this game thus far because of their generous funding rather than their innovation. Unless there is something significantly unique about this offering, pubCenter might therefore never be able to conquer the market share it is aiming for.