(August 9 2005) Yahoo! do it, Google do it, Ask Jeeves and the bees do it — and now, as expected, does Microsoft.

Next week Microsoft will invite selected companies to test the new MSN Keywords program. The test will start in October with 500 advertisers and search-engine marketing specialists.

Why should MSN start its own pay per click text ad programme, when it can just as well sell text ads provided by Yahoo! and others?

The main reasons are control and profit.

Pay per click text ads was the feature that saved the search engine industry, and made at least some of the companies profitable. This means that the party that controls the text ads has enormous power. In this case this power will be held by MSN’s competitor, Yahoo!

Furthermore, in the long term it probably makes sense for MSN not to pay Yahoo! for providing “sponsored results”, and keep all the profit.

See also: Silicon.com