MSN adCenter has now lauched with the new name of Microsoft adCenter.

Along with the launch comes news that adCenter will launch in the UK market on a limited basis in June, begin testing their contextual advertising this summer, provide ads on multiple Live products and drop Yahoo! Search Marketing ads from all US-based searches on MSN Search.

The name change is a very curious decision. With all search related products branded under the MSN name, why change MSN adCenter to Microsoft adCenter? When going to the adCenter site now, it has been entirely rebranded Wednesday evening to coincide with the Thursday announcement. It will be interesting to watch others weigh in on this topic. I am not sure that rebranding from MSN to Microsoft is the best decision for adCenter, but it is certainly a decision that will get people talking about the possible reasons why for the rebrand.

The launch into the UK market is a natural progression for adCenter, and they seem to be taking a similar pilot route into the UK as they did in the US. However, with the experience behind them with the US pilot, I wouldn’t expect that the UK pilot would last very long before fully launching.

It has been known that MSN would eventually launch a contextual advertising product to compete with Google AdSense & Yahoo Publisher Network, so this isn’t entirely a surprise. But having a summer target date for testing is something many potential publishers will be watching for when the ads begin running on MSN & Microsoft network sites.

And dropping Yahoo! Search Marketing ads is not a surprise at all. MSN has been cutting back on the percentage of ads they show from Yahoo as their adCenter pilot progressed, most recently dropping Yahoo ads to only 30% of all US searches on MSN Search.

Advertisers will also be able to see their advertisements appearing across a number of MSN & Microsoft properties in the future, including Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live Safety Center, Windows Live for Mobile, Office Live and Office Online, and the Xbox® Web site Xbox.com. This definitely ends much speculation about how many of these new free Live branded products would be monetized to make them worthwhile. And it gives adCenter a platform to test contextual targeting prior to launching a product for publishers.

For current pilot advertisers, nothing much will be changed. But for those wanting to advertise, you will no longer have to wait for an invite or an open sign-up day to be able to run ad campaigns on MSN Search.

Via: Kevin briody | Search Engine Watch