Massive Gains Momentum on In-Game Ads

Google(GOOG Quote) may be the king of online advertising, but Microsoft(MSFT Quote) has the lead when it comes to another fast-growing market: in-game advertising or advertising embedded into video games.

In-game advertising is one of the biggest trends of the video-games business. The Yankee Group, an industry firm, estimates that the market will hit $700 million by 2010 and that about 200 games across almost all the major game platforms had advertising embedded in them by year-end 2006.

With its purchase of in-game advertising start-up Adscape for reportedly $23 million in February, Google seems to have gotten a whiff of the potential. ...