NEW YORK (MarketWatch) Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) issued invitations to selected advertisers to participate in the new ContentAds pilot.

Less than a month ago, I mentioned that Technorati had switched from Google Adwords to Yahoo Search Marketing as their ad server of choice on search results pages. At the time, the ads looked like this:

LONDON (AFX) - Yahoo Inc said it has signed an advertising agreement with privately-held go2 to feature Yahoo sponsored search listings on go2 mobile search results.

Doug Stotland, Group Product Manager, adCenter, MSN Search, advised advertisers yesterday that they have the “capacity to pay more for a click.”

Yahoo Search Marketing has basically been using the same auction bidding system since GoTo.com launched nearly 8 years ago and with the new direction of the Yahoo company and the success of Google AdWords, the public (advertisers) have been screaming for a new up-to-date system which compliments the diversity of the Yahoo Network.

ThreadWatch release that shows Microsoft has purchased DeepMetrix, a Web analytics company. The purchase is to enable Microsoft to "deliver new Web analytics applications in future releases of Microsoft adCenter." Last year Google acquired Urchin, and then renamed it to Google Analytics in November and began AdWords integration soon after. Microsoft will possibly do the same.

While Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touted the US arrival of his company's Google AdWords killer, potential customers who use the Firefox browser found their attempts to join AdCenter were being killed by a lack of cross-browser compatibility.

While MSN adCenter has been in pilot mode since mid-October, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is announcing the official launch of adCenter at Thursday's MSN Strategic Account Summit... as well as the new name change to Microsoft adCenter.

According to the results of a survey of 1,200 advertisers performed by Outsell, Google’s AdWords search marketing unit is more effective than Yahoo or MSN (although MSN adCenter is still in limited run) search marketing offerings.

This week, Yahoo! Search Marketing will begin truncating its sponsored search text ads after the first 70 characters. Many search marketers see the move as a positive one.