The Googlization of Everything

Advertisers Give Thumbs-Down to Google-Yahoo Deal - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog:

Advertisers Give Thumbs-Down to Google-Yahoo Deal

By Stephanie Clifford
Thumbs Down

Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said Thursday that his company’s search deal with Yahoo was a win-win-win: a win for the companies, a win for the publishers and a win for advertisers.

Advertisers don’t seem to agree.

“There’s an appeal in terms of ease of management and optimization” of online campaigns, said Aaron Goldman, vice president for marketing and strategic partnerships at Resolution Media, an Omnicom agency that does search marketing. “Of course the downside is, in that environment, what is Google’s motivation to continue innovating, to be more transparent with data, which is something that’s been a big knock on them for a while? What are you going to do, not use them?”

Michael Mothner, who runs a search-marketing firm called Wpromote, said the deal was “really scary from an advertiser’s perspective, knowing that we need Google, and if they decided to raise their prices or assess other fees, they have a lot of power now.” He added: “Even though Yahoo would be a separate entity, outsourcing search is essentially giving the keys to Google. From an advertiser’s perspective, it’s really scary how much it resembles a powerful monopoly over search ads.”

Ah, the monopoly question. Mr. Schmidt said in a conference call discussing the deal that the companies had set it up in a way that should meet with regulatory approval. And Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said that “we don’t see a need for regulatory approval in Europe.” He added: “In fact, there’s no requirement we get regulatory approval in the U.S.; we have entered into discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice, though,” because of the deal’s high-profile nature. ...