Will the market support another AdSense-killer? Initially, I thought it would be a contextual version of their Amazon Associates affiliate system. After reading Chris Beasley’s post, it became clear that it was going to be an AdSense clone offering third party sponsored links.

The cynic in me says it won’t work. The sponsored links system works on a site when you are able to gather people actively searching for products and services. To bring advertisers on board, A9 will have to prove that it’s search traffic is worth the investment. Right now, A9 isn’t even on the radar for most searchers. If people aren’t using A9, it will be hard to convince existing Google AdWords and Y!SM advertisers to divert part of their marketing budgets to A9.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for competition, especially in the contextual advertising space. Let’s go Jeff, please prove me wrong.