Social networking site MySpace is set to launch a new advertising drive that will serve as a rival to Google's AdSense system, the Guardian reports.The site has announced it is devising a SelfServe advertising system that will allow organisations to develop and launch their own ad campaigns on the site.
MySpace international managing director Travis Katz agreed that the new advertising system is based on the same idea as Google's AdSense system, but said it is nevertheless a different product.
AdSense is an ad serving programme which allows website owners who enroll on it to enable text, video and image ads to appear on their sites.
Mr Katz commented: "AdSense was the first targeted advertising product that was open to everyone and tapped the long tail.
"It showed that you don't have to be a huge company to buy media space, you could be a small start-up, a pizza place or a band. We're taking the same concept."
Due to launch early in 2008, SelfServe will enable companies to create ads containing their own graphics, images and logos. It will also provide them with a means of analysing their performances.
Additionally, the site will open up a targeting trial to new brands in the US, which categorises users based on their profile information and assigns advertisements accordingly.
Called Hypertargeting, the service allows firms to direct their promotional content to more than 100 groups and sub-groups of MySpace users, including those of electronics, music and sport.
