Google will finally add ad-serving giant DoubleClick to its advertising arsenal this week if the Federal Trade Commission approves the merger after months of investigating the matter. In anticipation of the approval, Ad Age talks with Tim Armstrong, Google's president of advertising and commerce. Like most ad network providers, Armstrong speaks of a one-stop shop for advertisers--although GoogleClick would certainly come the closest the industry has seen to delivering on that promise. "When people do big launches, they do a couple types of creative and a few products. But by having Google and DoubleClick work together, we …

Web industry analysts and search marketers all have a rough idea about how Google's PageRank works. But the Web giant's search algorithm has evolved over time, making it difficult to discern how the search king returns results and ads so effectively. Apparently, it's similarly complex to the brain's memory recall. In the past, the blog TechDirt in jest said that Google Search works as a secondary brain for many people. As it turns out that joke isn't all that far from the truth, if you believe researchers at World Science (link: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/071205_google.htm), who proclaim that the …

Many in the blogosphere responded with a big yawn when Ask.com said it would allow users to delete search results. The vast majority of people--minus criminals or the paranoid--simply don't care. Case in point: new Hitwise data, showing that Google continues to extend its inexorable lead in Web search. According to the traffic measurement firm, Google attracted 65 percent of all searches in the U.S. last month, an increase of 3.24 percent over November 2006. By comparison, Ask.com increased its share by a paltry 0.4 percent. As Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget says, the only bad news …

Network operators like AT&T and Verizon Wireless are freeing customers from locked-in handsets and multi-year service agreements, while bold newcomers like Google and Apple are forcing network operators and handset makers alike to innovate. Nokia, the world's largest handset maker with a 39 percent global market share, regards the entry Google and Apple as both an opportunity and threat to its business. Nokia's mobile Web-based services initiative called "Ovi", which is Finnish for "door," will offer everything from digital mapping to downloading music. In fact, Nokia recently struck a deal with Universal Music Group, the world's largest record label, …

Mobile technology in Asia is several years ahead of the U.S. market. Sensing an opportunity, Asian telecom and technology firms are stepping in, believing that mobile data services is about to explode in the U.S. just as it has in places like Japan, China and South Korea. Among them are Japan-based carriers DoCoMo and KDDI. The former has a painful past in the U.S. market. Three years ago, DoCoMo was forced to sell its 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless for a loss of $3.3 billion. Nevertheless, the Japanese telecom believes that the time is right to strike in …

Social networking pervades all aspects of media life. Now, imeem, a social music startup, wants to reinvent the way music is distributed and shared on the Web. This week, the Web startup, which lets users listen to and share their favorite music online, signed a distribution agreement with Universal Music Group, completing the final piece of the Big Music puzzle for the 3-year-old site. Indeed, imeem is now the only place on the Web that legally offers free unlimited access to music and video from the four major record labels: BMG, Warner Music, EMI Group, and now, …

After years of middling success as a social network for professionals, LinkedIn is suddenly the sector's hottest B2B site. Recently, Web measurement firm Nielson Online pegged the company's growth at 189 percent year over year in October, beating Facebook and MySpace. Success has made the company more ambitious. On Monday, LinkedIn unveiled changes it hopes will draw better user engagement and more ad revenue. Among the changes the company is lining up are a new homepage, on-site messaging, news articles from around the Web and "network updates" (read: a Facebook-esque news feed). On-site messaging will be a …

Technology IPOs, seemingly a long lost relic of the dot-com bust, are coming back. The following new media and technology companies are set to open their doors to the public in 2008: NetSuite, a software maker, Classmates.com, a company that helps former classmates find one another, and Arcsight, a developer of network security software. None posted a profit in their most recent filings with the SEC. NetSuite is the biggest worry, having lost $35.7 million on revenue of $67.2 million in the most recent quarter. Worse, the company has shown no consistency in its results, according to …

In some respects, Howard Dean is the forefather of online campaigning. His 2004 campaign drew enormous buzz for its ability to draw funds and volunteers from the Web, resulting in the birth of a new discipline for political strategists. His campaign might have sputtered out in the end, but Dean's online success is a model the presidential hopefuls on both sides have tried to replicate this year. But success has proved elusive. Each of the 2008 candidates have "failed to grasp an essential truth" of Dean's campaign: It was orchestrated by strangers. "Dean for America" was created--and it …

Google's interest in wireless spectrum extends well-beyond bidding in next month's FCC auction. Last week, the search giant showed the governmental agency two experimental technologies that could potentially free up unused TV airwaves for wireless Internet access. These so-called "white spaces" are located between TV channels. Google described its technologies as "amply" protecting against any signal disturbances that could be caused by using the white spaces. Google isn't the first big company to propose a way to use white spaces. Both Microsoft Corp. and Royal Philips Electronics tested similar technologies and submitted their results to the FCC …