Google and Doubleclick: All Your Ads Belong to Us

John Battelle started a meme a couple of years ago when referring to Google's appetite for information: "All your [insert noun here] belong to us." That's the phrase that immediately came to mind when I read that they purchased DoubleClick today for $3.1B. For more, see Google's blog post.

When you think about it, Google may now manage an entire company's online ad buy, even if the ad dollars go to other media properties, which they will. It's almost like you can hear Google saying "All your ads, belong to us."

Many of Google's purchases are about data. The more data they collect, the better the ads and search results they serve. I wonder if this will finally raise the eye of regulators. There's no clear anti-trust conflicts here (at least to a layman like me). However, as Google grows and it gains more power, so will the government's watch.

For advertisers, there's nothing but upside here. Banner ads are great for branding but not for direct response. Now Google has an end-to-end advertising solution for both publishers and the clients they serve. The greatest value though may still lie ahead as Google begins to plow through 10 years of Doubleclick data and whatever they collect out from here.

Comments

[Gen]

Steve, I'm not sure if you meant what you said but the "All your base are belong to us" meme was certainly not started by Battelle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

[Joe Duck]

Steve why "nothing but upside" for advertisers? It seems there could be upward cost pressure if a single entity controls most of the ad landscape. Google is (cleverly) setting themselves up to be able to demand higher rates as it becomes essential for advertisers to work with them.

[jjprojects]

About 10 days ago I wrote a post on my blog about a patent Google is filing in relation to gathering information for in-game advertising.

Things seem to be moving fast in quite a few different areas. Steve, a couple of days ago you were speculating about how Google might be interested in Twitter in the future.

I could see a time when Google could be serving relevant ads within web, games, mobile and interactive tv. What do you think?

[kenneth]

I was going to post what Gen already said.
But if google were a person on irc, he'd say (especially after reading your blog ;) )

All your Rubel are belong to us.

[Frank Kanu]

I agree with Joe (comment above). Not only Google but also others have been busy buying companies.

For companies the big questions is how much their advertising costs will raise.
And - probably the bigger issue - how will this influence the privacy of the users?

Does Google become Big Brother?

[Sanford]

What do you mean if google is "Big Brother"? Remember "Don't Be Evil"....

[Steve Jay]

With the data they have access to now Google will be 'Big Brother', 'little sister' & your long lost cousin all at once..