Each one of us saw it coming, didn’t you? Once Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion, we were all just waiting for Google to get into this. I was a one time Google lover but now I want to use the word evil.
So What is the meaning of Google getting into Display and Banner Ads?
Most of us know very well how Google Ads (Google adwords and Google adsense) work and make money. If not, here is how it went.
Who rakes in the moolah?
(A website owner who allowed Google to place ads on his website, and let it look crappy) AND (Google)
How does the revenue thing work on ads? Its quiet simple, people click on Ads.
- When you do a Google search, you get some sponsored links on the right of the page and now the top as well (As Google gets more and more evil from being a Do No Evil company), if you happen to click the ads, the website in which you land up pays Google. These are all text ads till now and the world is a changing place, we all know that by now.
- There are certain sites which allow Google to place ads on their website. This means revenue for those websites. The exact revenue sharing mechanism has never been revealed by Google but the website owner and Google share the revenue. The money, obviously happens to be paid by the owner of the ad, the site you get referred to.
Who pays the money and how are their ads placed ?
- It is on the basis of a bidding which happens for Google adwords. Like if there is some important word which is searched more and you want your ads to appear on the Google search using those words, you bid and pay a higher amount to Google. And since even after your high bidding since Google applies its ranking algorithm to sponsored links too, your ad may not always appear at top.
- So what is adsense? Adsense as the words meaning clearly suggests, you are allowing Google to decide what ads need to be placed at what place. Google on the basis of the content of your site will place relevant ads (which turn out to be quiet irrelevant at times).
So What changes now?
Enter into fray DoubleClick. Google acquired DoubleClick for a whopping $3.1 Bn in April 2007. Double click happened to be and remains one of the biggest providers of display/video/banner ads. Today Google as expected finally announced their royally evil entry into the Display Advertisment space big time. If you want to put display and banner ads on your website, just contact Google. I see very soon some day when there will be a big display advertisement moving inside Gmail and I will hate that. We all already know how Google bots already read our emails to put relevant advertisement inside our inboxes in gmail. What Google has come out with now is the Double Click ad exchange program where they claim to simplify serving of Display ads. They have already launched their Display Ad Builder for people to create Ads. According to the Google Blog “The Ad Exchange is a real-time marketplace that helps large online publishers on one side; and ad networks and agency networks on the other, buy and sell display advertising space.” The blog goes on and says “AdWords advertisers will be able to run ads on sites in the Ad Exchange, using their existing AdWords interface. This means more high quality sites for AdWords advertisers to run display ads on. Similarly, our AdSense publishers will benefit from more high-quality display advertisers coming through the Ad Exchange. You can read more about these benefits on the AdWords Blog and the AdSense Blog.” So, we have the same bidding system for display ads now and Google makes even more money. Good for them. An explanation for the Ad Exchange can be found out here.
So What does it mean for people like us?
We get to see more ads. We get is see all bare space on the internet engulfed by Google and its scary display ads. And yes we are actually seeing the slow death of a giant like Yahoo.
Whats my take on this?
At one point in time we had enough of Microsoft. (By the way, Bing happens to be the fastest growing search engine now. But they are far away and are not likely to create a havoc for Google in the search spcae.) Not that Microsoft died after the enough we had. But in came Google and Microsoft was tamed. I am looking forward to another David taking on Goliath. But the positions have changed. Google happened to be the David when it took on Microsoft (Goliath then). Now Google is the Goliath and I am looking forward to some David who takes on Google in the advertisement space and advertisements start to make more meaning rather than just being money churners.
Best of luck to the Google team and the Double Click team from the Microreviews team. Also a special good luck to the special David I am looking forward to.
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