Google isn't alone in inching into the banner advertising space. Yahoo also is beginning to test new ad formats as part of its search marketing offerings.

A Yahoo Inc. spokeswoman confirmed this week that the company's search-marketing division, formerly known as Overture Services, plans to start testing graphical banner ads displayed based on their relevancy to a Web page's content in the next few weeks.

"We're always looking at ways of enhancing our services," Yahoo spokeswoman Gaude Paez said. "There are a number of things we're looking at doing [in search advertising], including tests we'll begin for putting sponsored listings in a banner, graphical format."

The test will run on Yahoo's network of sites, rather than on partner sites, she said. The ads will be dynamic, initially appearing as a banner ad and then transforming into a sponsored link.

She declined to provide further details about Yahoo's plans for the graphical, pay-per-click ads.

For its broad network of sites and services, Yahoo already sold banner ads and other formats to advertisers. But selling contextual banner ads would be a departure for its search marketing division. So far, that division has focused on selling text-based sponsored listings, which appear alongside search results or as contextual ads on content pages.

Last year, Google began selling banner-type ads when it launched its image ad program. This week, Google also made headlines when it added an animated graphical ad format and moved into offering site-targeted ads sold based on impressions rather than on clicks.

Speculation also has grown in recent months that Yahoo will be expanding its search-advertising program for publishers. Yahoo's sponsored listings currently appear on a limited number of other sites, but analysts expect the company to offer a broader program, similar to Google's self-service AdSense program, in which a wider variety of publishers can run Yahoo's ads.

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