What can Adobe do about a static PDF file, now that they have found a newer solution to this established document file standard, i.e. to monetize it. Today Adobe and Yahoo! have jointly launched a program called “Ads for Adobe PDF, Powered by Yahoo!” I see this is a first step for Adobe to push all its established products as Web products that could help them made a lot of dough on the Web. For Yahoo!, it’s more than a milestone for them, since this partnership will put them right back in the online advertising game against Google. In fact, it’s interesting to see how Yahoo! pursue this game, they changed the platform for advertisement, i.e. from Web page to static document, can they make it this time? On the other hand, will Buzzword, the word processor of Adobe, will Adobe put the advertisement onto the Buzzword in near future?

This Ads for Adobe PDF is currently in beta phase, only invite-only beta testers can enjoy the benefits of upload the PDF files to the Yahoo!/Adobe portal, and the vendors will then send the files back to the publishers with the advertisement functionality are enabled for the PDF documents. Since the Adobe PDF has now became the long-tail inventory for Yahoo! Publisher Network, and this network is only open to US publishers, we will not see this kind of advertisement in any of the publishers outside of the US by end of this year. Currently, publishers that participated in this beta program include: IDG InfoWorld, Wired, Pearson’s Education, Meredith Corporation, Reed Elsevier, just to name a few. They’re the first batch of publishers with the golden opportunity to generate another stream of revenue in a radically different approach. However, advertisement can only be displayed on Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat document. As you know, PDF document is static, and the advertisement for the PDF is contextual, which mean Yahoo! serve the advertisement based on the content of the PDF document, it offers an entirely new way to view a static document that appeared advertisement in a dynamic way.

My sense for this move is that it is a forward-looking strategy for Yahoo! and Adobe, but they definitely face the challenges of integrating lot of PDF files into the Yahoo! Publishers Network, and assuring the pay-per-click reports for the publishers are concise, and real-time.