• ClickZ, Friday, September 1, 2006 12 PM

What do marketers think about the spate of new Google partnerships and ad initiatives? Do the additions of AOL, Fox Interactive and eBay make any difference? Not according to those who spoke with ClickZ. Of course not, since Google's distribution deals mean a lot to Google and its partners: more search queries and more money for each of them. Marketers just want to buy ads that put them in front of the right audience, whether it's at MySpace or eBay or Google. Insofar as Google technology does a better job of putting advertisers in front of the right people, they're happy for Google to make partners with the entire world. Google does this better and on a bigger scale than anyone else. But how do deals like this affect marketing budgets? John Ragals, svp and managing director of the agency 360i, says: "Search budgets in general are growing so significantly that it is more likely to be a question of where additional budgets are allocated, rather than pulling budgets from one engine into another." Marketers do like being able to manage more of their inventory from one place, but as Kevin Lee, Did-it.com's executive chairman, says--the effectiveness of that inventory is what matters most.

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