• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 10:30 AM

Even as Yahoo and Microsoft (reportedly) make counter moves, there can be little doubt that DoubleClick, set to be acquired by Google for $3.1 billion pending federal objection, is the big kahuna of display delivery. For the first time since the landmark announcement, DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt spoke about the acquisition and the criticism surrounding it.

Privacy advocates worry that together Google and DoubleClick would collect an unprecedented amount of information about Web users. The companies plan to combine DoubleClick's services with Google's platform, enabling them to target, serve and analyze all types of online ads. Rosenblatt, however, points out that DoubleClick's data is 100% owned by its advertising and publishing partners, which ostensibly means Google wouldn't be able to use it to better target search ads. Google's display network would have to be distinct from its search and contextual network.

The goal of the merger is to address the prevailing disparity between search, display and video advertising usage. There are hundreds of search advertisers, perhaps 5,000 graphical advertisers and a few hundred video advertisers. This is because the process isn't as efficient or intuitive as search advertising. Google wants to democratize the marketplace and simplify the process for implementing these ad formats.

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