Google Reminds Everyone They Really Are An Ad Network

from the in-case-you-forgot dept

When Google first started out, everyone thought of them as a search engine. However, a few years ago, people began to realize that they really were just a next generation ad network. With that in mind, people have suggested in the past that Google might move into offline ad sales, and it appears that's exactly what they're doing. It makes some sense, from the standpoint of Google being a natural ad-broker/middleman who can buy up advertising space in bulk and then parcel it out more efficiently. They can sell the space in smaller segments at a higher cost than what they paid, but lower than what a company would pay for buying that amount of space directly. However, where it makes somewhat less sense is that it's a bit more difficult to apply the same automated efficiency and contextual targeting that they do for the online space. So, it's really just a small extension of what they do. A basic arbitrage opportunity where their advantage is the relationship with advertisers and the stacks of cash they can use to buy up ad inventory in bulk, rather than any real technology advantage.