• CNet et al., Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:21 PM

When Google announced Monday that it was converting DoubleClick DART and Google Ad Manager into a system with the goal for display ads what the Mountain View, Calif. company did for search, reactions ranged from "ho-hum" to "let's get ready to rumble."

The control and feedback that Google can offer will no doubt make the revamped systems formidible. "Similar work on search ads has made many a millionaire at Google, and the company believes it can give display advertisers the same amount of precision and analytical tools that are available for text advertisers," writes CNet.

PC World reminds its readers that this was all part of Eric Schmidt's diabolical master plan, and that the Google CEO pledged "the next huge business for us is display." And PaidContent spoke with Google VP of product development Neal Mohan, who said openness is central to the new system, "as Google hopes to attract developers' tools to its display ad serving."

The Los Angeles Times calls Google's move to launch DoubleClick for Publishers "a shot over the bow of start-ups like Rubicon Project that attempt to optimize and sell publisher ads." Just last week Rubicon had announce a deal with private equity firm Allen & Co. to grow its existing platform and find new partners.

ReadWriteWeb predicts a battle is brewing between Web giants Google and Facebook. "While Google currently has the upper hand in the battle, it's starting to look more and more like Google and Facebook are about to duke it out in the advertising arena. And who will they be battling over? The little guy." That would be you. Unless you're Eric Schmidt, then not you, you can stop reading.

Read the whole story at CNet et al. »