A Vibrant Media Competitor?

As editorial types, we weren’t that crazy about Vibrant Media’s Intellitxt contextual ad product. You remember, it’s the one that creates ad inventory from text articles online. Within the article, a keyword that has an ad associated with it is distinguished somehow (such as with double or different colored underlines). Then, when the user mouses over that keyword, a little box pops up containing the text ad. Maybe you remember the hubub that ensued when it got out that Forbes was testing the company’s solutions. Haven’t heard much from Vibrant Media lately, myself.

I did a doubletake today when I heard about an apparent Vibrant Media competitor, Kontera, which just received funding (amount not disclosed) from well-thought-of VC firm Sequoia Capital. And former Jupiter Research analyst and now Ammo Marketing guy Gary Stein is quoted in the company’s press release saying pretty positive things. Am I missing something here? I haven’t seen an implementation but is Kontera that much more relevant than Intellitxt? Honestly, I haven’t minded Intellitxt-type ads so long as they’re placed in appropriate places (maybe forums, or other difficult-to-monetize areas) but are they effective enough to warrant investment from Sequoia (which funded the likes of Google and Yahoo!)? Just asking.