You can't teach an old dog new tricks

revenue lines

...or can you?

General Advertising Guidelines

  • All ads must spawn new window for destination page.
  • Sound must be user initiated with sound off button.
  • No continuous looping of animation allowed.
  • If ads shake or flash, stop animation after 3 seconds.
  • Ads cannot mislead user. No false "close-out" boxes, warning messages, etc.
  • Click-thru cannot auto-download unless specified as such in the creative.
  • Lycos reserves the right to dismiss any creative.
  • No advertising for alcohol, gambling (US), prescription drugs, tobacco, religion, politics, guns or sexually explicit themes will be accepted.
  • Prohibited Content Types:
    • Ads claiming that the user has won a prize are not allowed.
    • Ads mimicking computer functions or computer dialogue boxes are not allowed.
    • Ads that have mock features, such as drop down menus or search boxes, are prohibited unless the functionality actually work.
    • Page takeovers.

Available Tag Sizes (html, swf, jpeg, gif files)

(Maximum upload file size of 82KB)

  • 300x250
  • 300x600
  • 728x90
  • 160x600
  • pop-under

We also accept the following ad unit types:

  • Pagegrabbers
  • Full Page
  • Half Page
  • Portrait
  • Page Skins
  • Page Peels
  • Billboards
  • Push Downs
  • Custom Sponsorships

General Lycos Competitor Restrictions

  • No creatives which advertise ANY of the following services:

    Web Hosting/ Web Publishing
    - E.g. Bravenet, BuyDomains, Fortune City

    Casual Gaming Sites
    - E.g. Pogo.com, GameVance, Pop Games

    E-mail Providers
    - E.g. Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL Mail

    Search Providers/SEM/SEO
    - E.g. Google, Dogpile, Live Search, AOL Search


Video (VAST) ad format for Adap.tv server

Ad format description

This ad format provides a way to display a video ad with an optional companion banner, when the ad is served in the VAST 1 or VAST 2 format (as defined by IAB) from an external ad server.

Supported formats

The video creative can be in the FLV (preferred), MPEG-4 or OGG format. Progressive delivery via HTTP is supported; streaming video is not.

The following formats are supported for the companion banner:

  • HTML/Javascript code snippets
  • URL ad tags resolving into HTML/Javascript code
  • Images (jpg, gif, png)
  • Flash rich media (SWF)

The following tracking events are supported, as defined by IAB:

  • impression
  • firstQuartile
  • midpoint
  • thirdQuartile
  • complete
  • click

Wrapper ads are supported. The following VAST elements take no part in the ad-rendering functionality:

  • AdSystem
  • AdTitle
  • Description
  • Survey
  • Error
  • Video Duration (duration is derived from the FLV metadata and not from the VAST element)
  • AdId
  • AdParameters
  • MediaFile bitrate, width, height (also obtained from FLV metadata)

Contact Us For Advertising Opportunities

sales@lycos-inc.com