Google Buys DoubleClick - Other Issues With Purchasing DoubleClick
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DoubleClick has a privacy skeleton in its closet. Back in the 1990s, it tried to combine online and offline consumer data, and to track activity and target ads based on those profiles. This caused quite a bit of controversy, as did the ad targeting service it launched in 2000 and scrapped not long after. More recently, DoubleClick settled state and federal lawsuits that accused it of violating the privacy of Web surfers. What does this mean for a company like Google, which has stated repeatedly that it cares about these issues?
"Overall, we care very much about end-user privacy and that's really going to take the number 1 priority when we contemplate new products," said Google co-founder Sergy Brin. He was responding to a question concerning whether Google would make search result information available to display advertisers so they could target it with DoubleClick's system. If the point of the purchase was to allow for more targeted display ads, Google may be in for a serious challenge as to how to achieve this without violating anyone's privacy.
Then there's the question of whether display ads are even relevant in general anymore, never mind targeting them better. Wainewright has described DoubleClick's model of serving banner ads as "so last century -- indeed, Tim O'Reilly even put DoubleClick at the top of his list of Web 1.0 examples in his seminal 2005 essay 'What is Web 2.0.'" He believes that the future is pay per action advertising.
The future isn't quite here yet, though Google has invested in that area as well with its new pay per action service. But even so, is there any reason for DoubleClick's software to be limited to banner ads? Once it's folded into Google's system, it's quite possible those engineers at Google will be able to expand it to work with different types of ads, across different types of media. (I'm willing to admit it won't be nearly as easy as I make it sound; after all, I'm a writer, not an engineer). If DoubleClick's software turns into a backbone, it will be very hard to call it "outdated."
In purchasing DoubleClick, Google bought two things that will help increase its dominance of the online advertising field: relationships and technology. While we may not see the immediate effects, there's no doubt that the acquisition will pay off over time. Indeed, five years down the line, the $3.1 billion purchase price might look like a bargain.
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