Yahoo has just announced that the beta version of its new Yahoo! Publisher Network is finally available. The YPN is Yahoo competitive reply to the wide dominance Google AdSense for the delivery and distribution of the Long Tail of ads. That is advertisements from small and medium sized publishers targeted for delivery through micro, small and medium sized blogs and web sites.

Unfortunately, just like it was the case for Google AdSense for over a year, for now only US companies with a valid US Tax ID number can participate.

The new Yahoo Publisher Network resembles in many ways what Google AdSense has been offering for quite some time, but with some notable exceptions.

a) Ad targeting. The dream of getting greater control on which ads are displayed and where is finally become reality. Thank you Yahoo!

b) Greater customization of the ads colors and layout. From my initial investigation it appears as if there is a bit more than what AdSense has been offering though, I need to do further testing to find out more about it.

c) Much greater flexibility and options in tracking use, clickthroughs and creating reports.

Just like for Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network ads will usually begin appearing within seconds of pasting the appropriate ad code into your web pages. If no ads are available, public service announcements will be displayed.

But let's look at the details:

Technology
After you join the Yahoo! Publisher Network, the YPN web crawler will review the content of your site in order to determine the type of content you serve to your readers. As for Google AdSense ads are served automatically with YPN trying to guess the type of content you are covering in each article and submitting relevant ads to each.

Ad customization
You can customize as many ad layouts as you wish, specifying a color palette and ad unit size to complement each page layout. Each ad layout you specify will generate a specific ad code, which you will need to copy and paste into the page or pages of your web site on which you would like the ads to appear.

Ad targeting
Ad Targeting is without doubt the most interesting feature of the Yahoo! Publisher Network. It allows you to identify and personally select the types of ads that in your opinion may fit best your readers needs.

You can choose up to two ad categories to apply to your web site, a specific directory of your web site or a content-specific web page on your site. Your ad category selections, in combination with YPN matching technology, will determine what types of ads will be displayed.

To set up Ad Targeting you need to log in to your Yahoo! Publisher Network account and click the Ad Setup tab. having dome that you need to open the Ad Targeting page where you can select the ad categories and subcategories that you think will be most appealing to your visitors.

At this point you can enter the Targeted URL in which you would like to see these ads appear. If you would like the ads to appear throughout your web site, enter your domain URL.

As of now YPN provides the following main 20 ad categories, along with 109 ad subcategories:

If you do not select any ad categories, you will receive contextually-matched ads based on the content of your web site.

Ad blocking
Just like Google AdSense, YPN ad blocking allows you to specify domains whose ads you wish to prevent from appearing on your site for a maximum of up to 200 domains to block. This is a restrictive limit and one that has caused me problems with google AdSense in the past. Google has corrected this issue and this should be a learned lesson for all competitors entering this field. According to YPN official page, once you submit URLs to be blocked, corresponding ads will no longer appear on your site within one to two business days.

URL tracking
Yahoo! Publisher Network provides several options to help you view and evaluate the performance of the ads shown on your site. You may track the performance of ads for your domain, a directory, or a specific page, or select any combination of these options by using URL Tracking. By default, your ad performance will be displayed in total.

You can define Tracking Categories that correspond to different sections of your site. Tracking categories enable you to view the performance of your ads by the categories that are relevant to you. For instance, you may define Tracking Categories that represent your company's lines of business and view ad performance reports by business.

In order to use a Tracking Category, you can create one in the Tracking Categories page. Then, in the Ad Layout page, you can assign the Tracking Category to your ad code.

To generate a report for individual pages on your site the URL Tracking page is the feature to use. From there, use URL Tracking to enter each individual URL for which you would like to receive a report. To view your data, click on the Reports tab and select Performance Report. You may then select the Reporting URL for which you would like to receive a report.

Payments.
Sad note here too, as YPN requires a bit more time than AdSense to send out your profit to your address. Forty-five days after the closing of the current calendar month, your check is sent out. Like for Google if your available balance is less than $100, your funds will remain in your account until your available balance reaches at least $100.

Overall a very positive announcement.

In perspective something that will force Google AdSense to further imporve, even at a faster pace, while providing small and medium sized publishers a competitive alternative to Google own's offering.

Microsoft is next.