Google and Double Click

Well it's official Google have at last completed the purchase of Double Click who are responsible for the majority of those banners and videos that run along the top or side of many websites. In fact they are responsible for billions of ads every day and although it may take some time for the $3.1 billion paid to be recouped, it is seen as a major win for Google.

So what will it mean to you and I?

Well it means that Google will have even more insight into our online behaviour.

It will mean that eventually you and I can earn money from these banners as Google are sure to include then in their growing armoury of AdSense revenue generators. This alone will allow "webmasters" to include these units in more and more websites, giving more exposure to advertisers and earning Google EVEN more revenue.

Over the last few years "text based ads", those that you see along the side of Google search pages or on third party websites, have dominated the 'paid for' ad arena with video and image ads dropping to 21% market share from their original 58% back in 2001. This is mainly due to Google being able to target ads based upon the specific search of a user or a specific page of a website i.e. on theme adverts, therefore achieving much higher conversions.

With their purchase of Double Click and the ability to target the right users we should see video and image ads making a huge comeback.

This is a HUGE blow to Microsoft, especially as their unsolicited bid for Yahoo was rejected. In reality we could really do with the Microsoft / Yahoo partnership just to keep an "even" balance.