LookSmart, an online advertising and technology company, today announced a solution for publishers’ unsold ad inventory known as “Platform Backfill.” An enhancement to LookSmart’s syndicated AdCenter for Publishers, Platform Backfill uses ad network feeds from other publishers using the AdCenter to help increase a publisher’s revenue and bidding activity. Advertisers also benefit from being placed onto multiple publishers’ sites which augments reach.

Platform Backfill combines advertiser feeds from those LookSmart publishers that choose to participate—including search engines, ad networks and LookSmart itself— then separates them into individual advertisers who can compete in another publisher’s auction process. Used to solve the problem of unsold inventory, this method fills ad spaces on a publisher’s page that are typically left empty. Backfill ads are placed on a publisher’s site along with their own ads.

“The release of Platform Backfill is a significant development for our publishing customers, as well as advertisers,” said Dave Hills, CEO and president of LookSmart. “The opportunity for publishers to increase both revenue and auction activity by creating a backfill solution is a big step forward in the industry. At the same time, we’re providing advertisers more opportunities to connect with prospective customers.

Platform Backfill is a system built within LookSmart’s AdCenter for Publishers. LookSmart licenses its AdCenter to top publishers, including Ask.com and Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, making it one of the more active technologies in online advertising today. First launched in Spring 2005, LookSmart’s AdCenter is a hosted advertising sales and service platform that allows search engines, media companies, social networking sites, retail sites, directories, ISPs and portals to manage their advertiser relationships and accounts.

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