SAN FRANCISCO - Internet search titan Yahoo announced a deal on Tuesday to buy video advertising specialty company AdInterax.
Yahoo's acquisition of AdInterax came as Yahoo courted youth social networking website FaceBook and the battle among Internet search engines for online devotees became increasingly focused on video offerings.
Google touted video sharing as the future of the Internet last week when the online search juggernaut revealed a 1.65-billion-dollar stock deal to buy hot young website YouTube.
The terms of Yahoo's purchase of AdInterax were not disclosed. The Sunnyvale, California, search engine said AdInterax would be a tool to help its advertisers "use sight, sound and motion to deliver a message."
"Creativity in advertising is critical to the further adoption of the Internet as a marketing medium," Yahoo vice president Greg Coleman said in a release.
Yahoo outlined plans to use AdInterax in a "self-serve" platform to enable advertisers to tailor and target messages online.
AdInterax streamlines the technical processes for making "rich media" ads that include floating animations, expandable banners and streaming video, according to the company.
AdInterax technology also retrieves information about how widely and often advertisements were being viewed or "clicked."
"We look forward to joining the Yahoo family," said AdInterax chief executive Peter Matsuo.
"We believe the addition of AdInterax's tools and technology into Yahoo's services will create compelling offerings for marketers and publishers."
10/17/2006 17:30 GMT