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Google competing in yet another way with DoubleClick

The New York Times (and others) reported yesterday Google's announcement that it was launching a "Gadget ads" program  which is essentially display-ad-serving to "widgets' which are essentially "mini-websites" within websites.

It is getting harder and harder for Google antitrust lawyers to argue with a straight face that Google does not compete in the market of "display-ad-serving" with DoubleClick.

  • Google is the world leader in "serving":
    • search text ads
    • contextual ads;
    • video display ads through YouTube,
  • And is now entering: 
    • mobile ad- serving;
    • and widget ad-serving to these mini-websites withing websites.
  • Google's definition of "ad-serving" is increasingly becoming too-cute-by-half semantic wordplay and not a functional or factual definition.

Antitrust officials should ask Google if they are colluding with DoubleClick to not compete while the merger is pending.

  • It seems increasingly obvious that Google's massive infrastructure cloud is capable of serving ads in most any forum imaginable.
  • So why has Google not chosen to compete more with DoubleClick? 
  • Have Google and DoubleClick secretly agreed on divying up the market and assume the merger will be approved and are getting a head start on market coordination?