Windows Live Mail Desktop (the heir apparent to Outlook Express, currently in limited beta testing) is adding contextual ads and search functionality in a package they’re calling Active Search, according to ClickZ.
The ads will be targeted against email text much like Gmail’s ads, and ad traffic will be filled by Kanoodle through the end of beta testing. Active Search is available only to a random sampling of Live Mail Desktop’s already limited pool of users, like a beta test squared. Once testing is complete, Microsoft’s adCenter will take over the ad serving duties.
Contextual ads are only one component of Active Search; it also picks out “relevant keywords” from email text and displays them in the Active Search sidebar above a search box (which is itself above the column of contextual ads). Users interested in these keywords can click on them to perform a web search without leaving Live Mail Desktop or launching a browser. If for some reason you’d like to search for something other than what Active Search selected, just use the search box in the traditional way. In either case, search ads will be served against those results (and those are already being provided by adCenter).
The Windows Live folks are making sure that users aren’t too freaked out by the prospect of someone or something other than them scanning their mail for relevant keywords; check the lengthy privacy section (“For Your Eyes Only”) of the Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta blog post (say that 3 times fast!) annoucning Active Search. Live Mail Desktop promises they’ll never trace keywords back to individuals, and if a person still feels oogly about it, they can shut Active Search off entirely with one click – and they say that “really, off means off.”
