Eyeblaster pushes fold on banner ads

Rich media advertising company Eyeblaster said Tuesday that it introduced two new ad formats into its collection of animated and pop-up units.

The New York-based company is now offering advertisers a new way to reach Web surfers through its "politely downloaded banner," which allows up to 100K file sizes, as opposed to standard banners at 15K to 20K. The banners are dubbed 'polite' because they load in the background using Eyeblaster's proprietary file compression technology, which helps to improve page-loading time. The 100K banner lets advertisers track how Web surfers interact with them.

Eyeblaster also introduced a new expandable banner, which lets advertisers add tabs of information within the banner that can open up onto the Web page containing the advertisement. The company is known for its floating ads and full-page overlays that have become popular on mainstream sites such as NYTimes.com.