At the IAB conference in Phoenix on Monday, Yahoo President Sue Decker made some tantalizing allusions to a new ad platform called “Apex.” According to the NY Times, this stands for “advertiser publisher exchange.”

Perhaps analogous to AOL’s Platform A effort, it attempts to knit all of Yahoo’s recent acquisitions and ad network properties together (e.g., RightMedia, Blue Lithium). The Times quotes Decker on the potential capabilities and intention behind the platform:

We are building a cutting edge ad platform that runs across all formats, whether it is search, display, video. It is capable of harnessing the power of Yahoo and the power off Yahoo. But it will also take advantage of emerging formats like mobile, all in an easy to use system.

I would imagine this is more conceptual than real at this point. Certainly this sort of simplified ad buying across the Yahoo network, and third party sites, would be welcomed by marketers. It’s an impressive and ambitious program.

If Microsoft succeeds in acquiring Yahoo, however, it’s unlikely that Apex will come to fruition.

Related Topics: Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Search Ads | Yahoo: SmartAds

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling