Google to Integrate DoubleClick Features
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Now that governments on both sides of the Atlantic have signed off on Google’s acquisition of advertising network DoubleClick, the search engine giant is wasting no time in integrating the technology it paid billions to obtain.In addition to adding DoubleClick’s frequency capping, frequency reporting and view-through conversion reporting to the AdSense arsenal, Google plans to unveil a method for users to opt out of DoubleClick network ads by visiting the Google Privacy Center. According to a spokesman, the enhancements will be available “in a few months.”
Among the planned upgrades to AdSense is an application that will allow advertisers to specify the number of times they would like an ad served to a particular user. In addition, advertisers will be able to determine how many people on average have viewed an ad and how many times they’ve viewed it. The new features will be available to AdSense customers only, not to companies and individuals who advertise on Google’s website.
Although Google has not specified how it will implement DoubleClick’s technologies except to say the integration will involve a DoubleClick ad-serving cookie, the unnamed Google spokesman said the company expects the new features to boost “ad quality.”
“We’ll be using the cookie data to improve ad quality as we are able to get improved signals on ad performance within the network and able to limit overexposure of advertisements,” the spokesman told ClickZ.com via email.
In the past, AdSense customers and Google advertisers were unable to employ tracking, reporting and research technologies they enjoyed on competitors’ sites in the MSN, Yahoo and AOL networks. However, in May Google implemented third-party tags in AdSense, and that move offered some of the missing features. In July, Google added an application that allowed AdSense clients to specify keywords in order to target ads to certain sites.