MSN News
Microsoft's adCenter Live in Singapore & France
A Microsoft press release confirms, that as shceduled Microsoft have debuted their contextual search ad service -- branded adCenter / MSN Keywords -- but at this time only in France and Singapore.
Updates on further developments are available directly from MSN. SearchEngineWatch also has a bit more on this story.
Micrsoft Unveil Search Ads, Today
The New York Times reports, that Microsoft are today scheduled to launch their own service to sell search ads, which will compete with Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords.
To help strengthen their late entrance into the market, Microsoft will offer ads targeted by demographic for their publishers. Something, neither Google, or Yahoo currently offer.
It's unclear at this time if the service will be available to everyone at launch, or only to a limited number of testers.
SEO Book has more take on this story