Fresh from completing its DoubleClick acquisition, Google is out with a new product called Ad Manager, a free solution designed to manage online ad sales and network-based inventory. In English, it will help Web publishers more freedom and control over their ads.

The Wall Street Journal reports Ad Manager is Google’s weapon of choice to target publishers with small- to medium-size sales forces. DoubleClick, on the other hand, is aimed at bigger sites. More than that, it will broaden its offerings to include videos, graphical displays, and text ads.

Aside from being free, which is the usual main talking point, Google claims Ad Manager has a very simple and intuitive user interface with simplified tagging and inventory management. Some of its key features include ad targeting, yield optimization, and multiple reporting options.

Currently, there are few sites testing the Ad Manager service and so far garnered some favorable reviews. Despite some speculations that Google will offer DoubleClick for free, a company spokesman said there are immediate plans on this.

Originally posted on March 13, 2008 @ 9:09 am

Scott Cleland, President of industry research and consulting firm Precursor, has testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights and recommended the panel oppose the proposed Google-DoubleClick merger.

He explained that the Google-DoubleClick merger would create extreme market concentration and “tip” the online advertising market, the economically critical market which is the only proven monetization engine of Internet content, to a bottleneck. Details of his insights can be found at Googleopoly.net.

“The combined Google-DoubleClick would have no effective checks and balances and little accountability to consumers, competition, regulators, or third-party oversight,” Cleland said.

Originally posted on September 28, 2007 @ 8:16 am