DoubleClick Archive

DoubleClick is announcing today a new high-definition (HD) video feature to enable advertisers to create and deliver online ad campaigns with High Definition-quality video in full screen. Their sample HD video ad using a campaign from Epson is pretty sweet indeed.

To handle the HD video ads, DoubleClick is using the H.264 video codec with the latest Adobe Flash player. The ads can be expanded to full-screen if the user desires a larger version.

While DoubleClick hasn’t shared their pricing with us for these ads, one can only imagine that the rates must be higher than traditional video ads and will require a higher creative to create the ads. Perhaps bonuses are paid to publishers based on how many users click to view the ad full-screen.

What is Google? Before you reply, take a second to think about it. Let's think about it from the people in the biz perspective and the average Internet user perspective.

Om Malik appears to share my view that Google is an advertising company whose products support their advertising platform. That's very different than a company who builds products and then relies on ads to support them.

I think most people in the biz know that Google makes hundreds of products and sells ads on basically every one of them. People outside the biz see Google as a search engine. "Go Google that" is still a popular phrase on tv and in real-life.

Whether Google bought DoubleClick to keep Microsoft away from the purchase or just for their own needs, the fact is that these advertising purchases are getting the headlines, not their products. On the one hand it is important that Google keep innovating their products so that they grow and the ad network grows with it. On the other hand, who cares about the products because their ad network supports most of the major sites on the Web today.

Sam Sethi (former head of TechCrunch Europe) has decided to leave some of the Google products behind. The jist is that since Google does not back these products the same as Adwords/Adsense, why should he believe in them as well?

I think Google has pushed the Internet leaps and bounds over where it would be had the company not exploded in size and stature. I appreciate that and hope others do as well. No way we would be where we are without Google. Going to their office in NYC you can see a culture shift that was/is very much needed. I remember going from a 3pc suit and jacket every day to jeans and a tshirt in 1996 and thinking that was a culture shift. But this IS a real shift.

I also read something in the USA Today (I believe) yesterday that Google is underperforming the S&P since they joined last year. Of course I will admit that their amazing run had to come to an end at some point.

The first Internet boom was on the shoulders of Yahoo. This time around it is Google. If Google fails or faulters, we will all feel the hit. Yes, it's true, it's damn true. My bet is that within 18 months we will see Google split from Google Products. My one wish is that Google become more open about the share we receive as AdSense publishers. This has been my biggest gripe with the company since they launched the program.

The New York Times is reporting that DoubleClick is about to launch an auction-based model for online advertising. The new DoubleClick advertising exchange will bring Web publishers and advertising buyers together on a Web site where they can participate in auctions for ad space.  I have watched DoubleClick grow (why didn't I take that job in 1997!?!) and shrink and now they appear upward-bound again.

There has been a lot of speculation in the past week about whether DoubleClick will be acquired by the likes of Google, Yahoo or Microsoft.

From the Times piece:

“Whoever gets them can immediately turn into an ad exchange business overnight,” said Dave Morgan, chief executive of Tacoda, an online advertising network. “Two billion dollars will not be a stretch for that.”

DoubleClick, based in New York, views the exchange as the centerpiece of a growth plan and may derive the majority of revenue from the new service within five years, said David Rosenblatt, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview yesterday. “We already have the largest sellers and the largest buyers,” he said. “This will link them for the first time.”

Could a Yahoo-DoubleClick merger give the combined company the strength to battle Google? I am not sure it makes sense for Microsoft and their long-term plans. Assuming no purchase, DoubleClick steps back into the spotlight for online advertising. They have large clients such as AOL and MySpace and now they can grow the small-medium side of the business.