How will DoubleClick customers react to Google buy?

While most people will go "woah" at the size of the Google/DoubleClick deal (US$3.1 billion) there are some who won't be happy. Not because of the money, but because they're DoubleClick customers who wanted to stay out of Google's claws.

That's right: not everyone loves Google's vice-like grip on online advertising. In fact, a number of publishers I've talked (no, I can't name them) call Google "the enemy". You do the advertising the Google way, or it's the highway, they say, and lament the lack of control that going with AdSense means.

For these people, things just took a turn for the worse with DoubleClick ending up in the Google fold. If they are DoubleClick customers, Google just acquired their traffic data and maybe also their ability to set advertising rates. It'll be interesting to see how many will bite the bullet and remain with GoogleClick, and how many will switch to competing networks.

Will it be possible to switch to competing networks though? DoubleClick is pretty dominant in its area, and combined with Google's might other networks may find it hard to measure up - unless say Microsoft or Yahoo step in and buy up a few, and combine them into a bigger unit with better reach. Steve Fox at InfoWorld asks if GoogleClick is a dangerous monopoly and he may well be right. I'm not sure if this is a good thing for Internet advertising as a whole.


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