OpenX Blog

Basic Freedoms
Beyond being free to use since 1998, at OpenX we’ve built our ad server based on a few really simple principles:

• Complete Control. The ability to manage any and all ad campaigns in any way a publisher wants from an independent platform.
• Easy to Modify. Because OpenX is open-source, publishers can use OpenX however they wish – including using the OpenX API to integrate with other systems, and modifying any OpenX functionality through plug-ins.
• Right of Transparency. The data that OpenX captures is completely transparent. You can analyse data any way you want – from totally raw data imported into your own data systems to standardized OpenX reports - and then use OpenX as a neutral 3rd party when evaluating different ad providers.

The reason that OpenX has become the world’s leading independent ad server with a global community of more than 100,000 websites in 100+ countries is because publishers appreciate and value these three basic freedoms that only OpenX provides to the online advertising market.

Why Does This Matter?
As we said before, this combination of freedoms means that OpenX is a trusted partner; providing a fully transparent, independent view of your online advertising activity. The more important that online advertising revenue is to you or your business, the more you should demand each and every freedom.

What Are The Stakes?
Online advertising is consolidating into a few large companies. The big guys (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL) control an increasingly large part of the online advertising market. These four companies have spent more than $10 billion on online advertising acquisitions in the past year alone.

Meanwhile, on the publisher side the market is fragmenting. People are increasingly reading blogs, niche sites, and other ‘long tail’ types of web content. This is a great trend overall because it means people are increasingly able to consume and contribute to their most specific interests. But as a result, publishers’ individual power is decreasing.

This all equals a large and growing imbalance of power between publishers and ad providers. There are many other industries that provide examples of what can happen when this imbalance exists for too long.

In this environment, it is ever more important to have a system of independent checks and balances that help ensure each publisher knows what is happening with their website advertising, and to ensure that no one ad provider gains unfair advantage. This way, publishers can maximize competition for their ad space and thus maximize revenue.

Choose Independence! Choose Freedom!
Now don’t get us wrong, we’re huge fans of Google AdSense, Advertising.com, Yahoo! Publisher Network, etc. We run their programs on OpenX, and they are all quite good at monetizing our publishers’ inventory.

However, it is not sensible to rely on them for everything. Independent solutions such as ours at OpenX enable publishers all around the world to work with all these players, to maximize the competition between them and to independently control their business and verify they are getting the best deals.
To become part of the OpenX community, we suggest the following:

• Try out the newest version of OpenX!
• Sign up to our mailing list for company news.
• Look here for other ways to participate.

Thanks for all of your ongoing support and participation.