Yahoo is set to begin showing ads to cellular customers. We have long felt safe from marketing while using our cellphones to browse pages, but now Yahoo, who has offered free viewing of search pages and other areas, is pushing ads to your phone that will take into account bandwidth and screen size. Bringing the Yahoo Go service will certainly be a first step to this very concept.
Advertisers know that the cellular world has increased traffic to some sites and that consumers are there using the services and are prime targets for marketing. Advertisers, it is reported, have already spent $104.4 million dollars in mobile advertising in 2005. A popular thing has been to design sites primarily for the smaller screens, making it easier to serve mobile clients. This move will bring a new marketing window to many…and will probably annoy users.
Yahoo has partnered, already, with over 50 mobile phone manufacturers to get this going. Watch for it very soon to hit your wireless phone. Also, many expect that it will evolve just like web ads have, and speed and graphics will load faster, increasing opportunities for advertisers in the future.
