AOL opens door for real estate advertising

Following the lucrative search advertising market, America Online is expanding its online search offerings, opening up new opportunities for advertisers on the Web portal. For real estate companies, that means more potential places on the Web to catch home buyer and seller eyeballs. The company today announced new AOL search functions and new technology partnerships, including plans to work with Ingenio, a San Francisco-based company offering pay-per-call advertising through the Internet. Ingenio Pay Per Call drives targeted phone calls, rather than clicks, to businesses displaying ads on a search engine. The model is similar to pay-per-click services in that advertisers pay only when they receive a phone call, and they bid for keywords and placement among search results. "It picks up all the great things pay-per-click (advertising) has done and made some critical changes," said Marc Barach, chief marketing officer of Ingenio. He added, "The next innovation is why should companies be...