AOL Europe drops Overture to extend deal with Google

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 20-Oct-04, 08:00

LONDON - AOL Europe has snubbed Yahoo!'s Overture and signed a deal with Google to provide paid-for search results on its European searches.

Google already provides web search results for AOL search products in Europe and, under the new expanded alliance with Google, users of AOL services in the UK, France and Germany will now also get targeted advertising from Google related to their search request.

Google AdWords advertisers can now appear on the search results pages of AOL's European properties based on users' expressed interests.

Previously, AOL Europe had a deal with Overture to provide commercial search results to AOL Europe's search directories in the UK, Germany and France on its AOL properties, and to its Netscape Germany and Netscape France portals. It signed the agreement in February 2003.

Omid Kordestani, senior vice-president of worldwide sales and field operations at Google, said: "Partnering with one of Europe's leading online and interactive services providers reflects Google's continued commitment to providing value to our European advertising customers.

"With this new agreement, AOL's European operations will benefit from the revenue opportunity, while its users will enjoy an enhanced online experience through the addition of relevant commercial information."

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