Around the Net
The Google Monopoly
- Financial Times, Friday, September 21, 2007 10:34 AM
"Don't be Evil." You knew that motto would come back to haunt any company with enormous growth aspirations like Google. Evil--or something approaching it--is exactly what Microsoft and AT&T worry
about in Google's bid to acquire the display advertising giant DoubleClick. The prospect of marrying cookies to search data is just a little too scary, they say--mostly for Google's competitors, which
would be at the Web giant's mercy when it comes to establishing online advertising rates.
Google was interested in buying DoubleClick in 2005, but backed out. It "decried the use of
cookies," which involves collecting user surf data to aid the relevancy of display ads, "as invasive," deeming the practice "evil." But now that Google has agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion,
pending government approval, it says it's found new ways of using cookies to lessen their impact on privacy.
However, even without the DoubleClick deal, Google often receives black marks in the privacy department. The company's moves into new fields like satellite mapping and email mean that it collects far more than just search data from users. Rivals say Google is to the ad market what Microsoft has been to software: a monopoly. Nevertheless, co-founder Larry Page, who coined the "Don't be Evil" phrase, sounds nonplussed: "As you get more powerful, it's natural for people to think this way."
