Microsoft kicks around ideas for future of Web advertising

Microsoft Corp.'s online advertising researchers will spend this year teaching computers to be smart about sticking ads into video clips, and to be even smarter about targeting ads to specific Web surfers.

Microsoft showed off a handful of early-stage advertising projects at its headquarters Tuesday that may or may not turn up as part of Microsoft's Web advertising platform.

The demonstrations come just days after Microsoft's $44.6 billion (euro30.36 billion) bid for Yahoo Inc., which, if successful, will boost the software maker's Web traffic and online ad revenue.

With its 2006 acquisition of aQuantive, the software maker gained a broader …