If AdKeeper chief executive Scott Kurnit has his way, there will soon be a new topic of discussion when ad teams evaluate their campaigns. Sure, theya4��a4�ll talk about how many times an ad was seen and clicked on, but theya4��a4�ll also want to know how many times it was a4��Akept.a4���

New York City-based AdKeeper recently launched a private test of a new service that allows users to save their ads. When you see the AdKeeper a4��Aka4��� on an ad, you can click a4��Asave this ada4��� to read, share, print, or interact with it later on.

Why would you want to do that For one thing, when youa4��a4�re visiting a Web page, youa4��a4�re probably not there to (say) click on an unrelated link, but you might be willing to do it later, said Kurnit (who founded the company that became About.com). Or if youa4��a4�re surfing at work, you might not have time to fill out a form &8212' but again, you might do it at home.

Today, AdKeeper unveiled a new measurement system called Keep Metrics, which shows how often an individual ad was kept, the number of users who kept it, and which websites the ad was kept on. The fact that the company will be collecting data about the effectiveness of its ads and providing that data to publishers and advertisers is no surprise. More interesting are Kurnita4��a4�s plans to release Keep Metrics reports to the public, showing which websites have the best-kept ads.

AdKeeper will be launching to the public early next year, and the first Keep Metrics report will come sometime afterwards &8212' Kurnit was vague about the timeline.

a4��AI want it to be great when it comes, whether it takes a months, two months, or three months,a4��� he said.

So why is he talking about it now Because he wants publishers to know that the rankings are coming. When AdKeeper launches, it will offer publishers tools to run their own in-house ads as well as ads from AdKeeper itself. (Kurnit argued that filling out a form to sign up for an email newsletter is an obvious example where someone may want to keep an ad to act on later.)

If publishers sign up for the program, AdKeeper will be able track their progress, and if their visitors love keeping ads, they&'ll have something to crow about to advertisers. If not, they might have to start thinking of excuses.

AdKeeper has raised $8 million from True Ventures, DCM, Spark Capital, and others.

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Tags: Keep Metrics, keepability

Companies: AdKeeper

People: Scott Kurnit

Tags: Keep Metrics, keepability

Companies: AdKeeper

People: Scott Kurnit

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

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