Googlesque Ads in AltaVista?

I was working with AltaVista last night, and I noticed that they're now showing ads on the right side of the page. As far as I can tell from the URLs, these are Overture ads, just like the ones that appear on the main page. They're just set up like Google ads -- in text boxes on the right.

In comparing these results with an Overture search for the same keyword, it looks like these are the same results with the exception of the first sponsored listing on AltaVista (which looks like a Doubleclick result anyway, upon examination of the URL.)

According to the AltaVista press release of May 30 about their renewed agreement with Overture ( http://about.altavista.com/prelease?yr=2002&dt=053002 ), "Under the terms of the agreement, Overture will provide its top three editorially reviewed search results under the heading 'Products and Services' to users of AltaVista's U.S. and Canadian search sites (www.altavista.com and www.altavista.ca)."

I talked to an AltaVista spokesperson about this and she was very close-mouthed, but left me with the impression that this was a test, and that its appearance in future iterations of AltaVista was anything but assured. So maybe you'll see this and maybe you won't. Keep an eye out though.

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