Sponsored Search: A Brief History

Web search is a fundamental technology for navigating the Internet. It has become an essential part of the online experience yet, it is provided free to consumers. Sponsored search, the delivery of relevance-targeted text advertisements as part of the search experience, makes this possible. Sponsored search has evolved to satisfy users' need for relevant search results and advertisers' desire for qualified traffic to their Web sites, and it is now considered to be among the most effective marketing vehicles available. The basic elements of sponsored search are: 1. advertiser-provided content, 2. advertiser-provided bids, 3. review process, 4. matching of advertiser content to user queries, 5. display of advertiser content, and 6. processes that gather data, meter clicks and charge advertisers. From the start, advertisers were concerned with how to measure effectiveness, and publishers were concerned with how to set prices. Yahoo! continues to transform the original sponsored search engine. Increasingly, there is academic interest in sponsored search.