Yahoo! rolls out smart ads

"NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--In the middle of Yahoo Inc.'s (YHOO) plan to reinvigorate its big, sluggish display-advertising business lies a new breed of diminutive, chameleon-like advertisements. The ads, which the Internet giant began offering to travel-industry advertisers a month ago, dynamically change colors, images and messages in response to what Yahoo knows about the Web surfer viewing them. For instance, a woman in New York who researched plane tickets to Miami on Yahoo Travel could be shown two days later an airline ad in a feminine hue including a fare quote for flights there. Dubbed SmartAds, the ad type could help make Yahoo's display inventory more competitive and lucrative. That's because targeted ads are more effective at engaging consumers and, therefore, more attractive and valuable to advertisers. If SmartAds are a success, Yahoo could also use them to bolster two other key display-ad initiatives, the Right Media ad exchange it recently acquired and a budding business providing display ads to partner sites like eBay Inc. (EBAY). "