Search Engine Optimization News Blog

AOL’s Platform A reaches nine out of ten internet users, and is on the leading edge of the mobile advertising front as well. In March they reached 170 million internet users, the majority on Advertising.com. They bought Quigo, and the social network Bebo, and seem much more focused than the competition.

In April, Verizon announced their intention to use Platform A for their online and mobile advertising inventory, giving yet another boost to Third Screen Media, Platform A’s mobile ad serving platform. In May a rumor circulated briefly that Microsoft, rebuffed by Yahoo, could be planning a move on AOL; this was quickly proven false as AOL had even less reason to consider a merger with MSN than Yahoo did!

June: the Platform A arrived in Europe, where mobile use is even heavier than in the US, and by July, AOL was poised to head up the expected boom in mobile advertising. Still leading the pack in mobile advertising, in August AOL bought another social network, SocialThing, folded Tacoda into Ad.com and began using the behavioral targeting solutions from Tacoda across its network.

The intense focus on social networking and behavioral targeting indicate that AOL does indeed know what they are doing, a fact that some voiced doubts about when they initially bought Bebo at what many considered to be double or triple what the network was worth.

Now, with Google’s Android looming, AOL has launched an iPhone ad optimization solution which will detect when browsing is being done mobilely. This enables advertisers to serve up specific banners, ads and web pages suited for mobile display, and could also lead to quicker localized results based on user location - much as Google is attempting to do.

“Today’s launch is a perfect example of how Platform-A’s unmatched reach, solutions and technologies can benefit advertisers trying to reach consumers in the most compelling way,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A. “We can not only help advertisers effectively reach iPhone users on WAP pages and Web pages, but we can also deliver banners optimized for display on the iPhone.”

So is iPhone in danger from Android? Many think not - Apple sold an obscene number of them in a very short period of time, and the trend shows no signs of slowing - you’re not getting a lot of “I’m waiting for Android” from consumers in the market for a SmartPhone.

With ads expected to reach 75 millions consumers per month on the mobile network, iPhone and AOL are leading the pack, and Google will have to do some fancy footwork to catch up.