Google, DoubleClick wedding approved
p2pnet news | Advertising:- With protestations from Google that all it wants to do is help you run your life more efficiently in the background, the marriage between the company and hard-core online ad firm DoubleClick is to be consumated.
This will turn Google, "into an even more powerful marketing vehicle that’s fueled by better insights about consumers," says Associated Press, going on:
"The $3.1 billion deal, completed Tuesday after nearly a year of regulatory wrangling, also may intensify the pressure on Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. to resolve their stormy courtship so they don’t risk further distractions while Google tries to sprint further ahead in the race for Internet advertising.
Apparently, the ink was barely dry on the approval document from European anti-trust regulators before Google took control of DoubleClick.
"US regulators cleared the transaction in December, casting aside objections from Microsoft and other companies that argued DoubleClick would give Google too much control over online advertising and potentially sensitive information about consumer behavior on the Internet," says AP.
"Google is going to be like a runaway locomotive coming full steam ahead now," analyst Russ Mann is quoted as saying.
Google’s pursuit of DoubleClick, "had a domino effect almost as soon as the two companies announced their marriage plans last April," says the story. "Within a few months, Microsoft, Yahoo and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL had spent more than $7 billion snapping up other online ad networks and tools to mount a counterattack.
"Besides helping Google build a one-step shop for advertisers and Web publishers, DoubleClick also brings a wealth of information about consumer behavior accumulated through years of tracking online surfing."
But privacy advocates are, "worried about too much power – and information – being concentrated at a single company," says AP, adding:
"The Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocate, said regulators’ failure to impose safeguards had "helped strengthen a growing digital colossus that will now be in a dominant position to shape much of the global future of the Internet."
"Ten years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the web," posted Alan Herrell in 2000, going on:
"Five years ago, the advertisers discovered it. This year, with DoubleClick’s concoction of the poisoned cookie, the advertisers are about to ruin it for pixel mechanics and privacy advocates alike."
Google says it, "carefully manage access to confidential information of any sort, and very few Googlers have access to what we consider very sensitive data," and, "Of course, the limited number of people who are granted access to sensitive data must have special approval."
Google was, last year, the only company to completely fail an important six-month investigation into privacy practices employed by key Net-based companies.
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Also See:
help you run your life – Google and you, March 11, 2008
Associated Press – Google Wraps Up $3.1B DoubleClick Deal, March 11, 2008
Alan Herrell – Clickthru Is Evil II, February 22, 2000
completely fail – Google flunks major privacy study, June 11, 2007
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