Visitors to Yahoo are being greeted with a blinking advertisement for online florist FTD.com, hawking 10 percent discounts for roses. The banner then doubles in width, taking up significant real estate along the right side of the page. The ad also links to a survey that asks people how they feel about the promotion.
A Yahoo representative said the campaign will be up only for the day in anticipation of Valentine's Day on Feb. 14. The representative added that the company has no plans to permanently lease out the space on its home page.
"As part of Yahoo's commitment to advertisers and consumers, we will continue to develop and test new advertising units across the Yahoo network," the representative said. "Yahoo continues to leverage the power of the Yahoo home page...to create innovative programs in collaboration with leading advertisers."
Serving larger and louder Web advertisements is nothing new on the Internet. Many Web sites have turned to bigger, more obtrusive ads in an attempt to prove the Web's worth as a branding medium to advertisers.
In the past year or so, Yahoo has allowed third parties to pitch products on its home page in a more creative fashion. Last year, Yahoo let Ford Motor advertise its new Explorer with a flock of animated blackbirds flying across the screen. Yahoo also ran a Pizza Hut campaign with an animated pizza floating on the home page.
In addition, the site has begun to devote substantial space to promote its in-house services, such as personals and travel planning.