VentureBlog: The Savior Of Web Advertising?

Consumers have one of two modes when they visit websites: browse or search. In browse mode, they're surfing from one site to another, maybe reading, maybe being entertained but generally not stopping in any one place too long. In search mode, they're looking for something specific and have an end goal in mind. Most (but not all) browse mode traffic occurs off search engines and much (but not all) search mode traffic occurs on search engines. Search type traffic also occurs on product review sites and comparative pricing engines.

I would argue that contextual advertising of the type John discusses in his article is extremely effective when a user is in search mode but a needless distraction in browse mode.

I'm in half agreement with this - Whilst it is true that non-search based contextual advertising will not work as well as search based, that does not mean that it won't work to a reasonable level. The real question is - what will that level be?

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