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Google agrees to buy another display ad company
Google has spent a fortune perfecting their display advertising efforts in recent years. Since acquiring DoubleClick in 2007, the company has released a number of new features to improve its technology, and just recently they agreed to plunk $750 million for AdMob and strengthen their presence in the mobile arena. Now, for the second time this month, Google is pulling out the checkbook to grow its advertising empire.
The search giant announced it is paying an undisclosed amount for Teracent, a California startup that specializes in creating customized display ads in real-time based on machine-learning algorithms. To illustrate the technology's potential, Google compared a traditional Google AdSense-generated advertisement, to a heavily tweaked and optimized ad as generated in real-time by Teracent’s complex algorithms -- as shown below.
While regular display ads always look the same for every user, Teracent's ads (on the right) are automatically created from multiple creative elements and can change according to factors like geographic location and language, as well as the content of the website, time of day, and the past performance of different ads.
The technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns, according to Google, while in turn enabling publishers to make more money from their ad space. The move might also come as a blow to Yahoo, which is currently working with Teracent to deliver SmartAds on its mobile properties. It will be interesting to see if Google will continue this partnership should the acquisition go through.
The search giant announced it is paying an undisclosed amount for Teracent, a California startup that specializes in creating customized display ads in real-time based on machine-learning algorithms. To illustrate the technology's potential, Google compared a traditional Google AdSense-generated advertisement, to a heavily tweaked and optimized ad as generated in real-time by Teracent’s complex algorithms -- as shown below.
While regular display ads always look the same for every user, Teracent's ads (on the right) are automatically created from multiple creative elements and can change according to factors like geographic location and language, as well as the content of the website, time of day, and the past performance of different ads.
The technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns, according to Google, while in turn enabling publishers to make more money from their ad space. The move might also come as a blow to Yahoo, which is currently working with Teracent to deliver SmartAds on its mobile properties. It will be interesting to see if Google will continue this partnership should the acquisition go through.
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User Comments (18)
Post a comment| matchu on November 24, 2009 11:58 AM | It's getting creepier and creepier how much Google and technology in general can 'learn' about you.... Google is great and all, but still. very creepy. |
| Adhmuz on November 24, 2009 12:35 PM | I'm still looking forward to the day advertisement gets projected into our dreams, then things will start to get creepy. This on the other hand is just another evolutionary step in web based advertisement. |
| Basher on November 24, 2009 12:35 PM | @matchu, I agree. I've been running NoScript on Firefox for quite a while now and it is amazing how many websites you go to and see Google-Syndication, Google-analytics, Google-this, and Google-that. I block them for the most part, but some sites are stingy and have features that don't work unless you allow them to collect your data. |
| fref on November 24, 2009 1:02 PM | I, for one, don't really care about targeted ads. I don't try to block them, I just ignore them. Who cares if some computer notices that I live in a particular area and sends me an ad that's a bit more relevant to me? Until ads can dig into my bank account to see if I can afford a Ferrari or a Ford, I'm not really worried. |
| Puiu on November 24, 2009 1:03 PM | I wonder what Yahoo will do after Google acquires Teracent.
They already aren't very well (actually not well at all) in
the ads department. But is this legal? (I smell a law suite
just like intel's) @adhmuz: monthly payments for add free dreams? ^_^ |
| Guest on November 24, 2009 1:03 PM | it doesn't matter how 'intelligent' they make the ads, i still won't be clicking any. I haven't purposely clicked an online ad in my 12 years of using the net. |
| swilllx2p on November 24, 2009 1:20 PM | A couple things I think of when I read this ad. First
being...how many companies and things in general are google
going to buy out? I mean seriously, I think they're growing
money trees. Second, I don't mind the targeted ads either
like someone else said..I'm not clicking on them, back to
the article though, I don't really care if ads get better
designs either...i mean...its only a matter of time
anyways..everything progresses like this usually.
Third, One thing i do very much mind are those adds that like to cover half your web browser after you move your mouse over them(some seem to expand regardless), and then you have to click close to get them out of what your trying to read/look at. Some don't even have a close button or hide it, Ads like that do no more then make me angry and want to personally not buy their products for irritating me with there intrusive ads. |
| paynetrain007 on November 24, 2009 1:21 PM | Google is going to buy out the world. |
| lupinnktp on November 24, 2009 2:21 PM | google is gaining too much too fast that it is over-shadowing its competitors. Googlisation on the way. |
| BlindObject on November 24, 2009 2:58 PM | I think google knows more about me than my girl friend does, lol! I wonder if they literally pull out a checkbook and put down those mammoth numbers on it and hand it over to the seller. |
| Deso on November 24, 2009 3:06 PM | Well this was totaly unexpected, It's annoying that almost every single site you are on are associated with google ad's somehow, and I personally hate the google-anayltics.com scripts run on every site and googleapis.com |
| danteoz on November 24, 2009 7:54 PM | I haven't seen an add in a while. Addblock plus in firefox works real nice |
| sky_could_fall on November 25, 2009 3:59 AM | Google is somehow a "good" big brother. No one looks on them like they look on MS. |
| yorro on November 25, 2009 5:42 AM | And to think that Google never gets paid with tons of free apps they put out. |
| dj83 on November 25, 2009 6:28 AM | I don't like ads, but think this it is a good idea to target by region. I just hope that these new ads don't hog the bandwidth in developing countries still on dial up. |
| levar on November 25, 2009 9:52 AM | paynetrain007 said: you know it right? I'm pretty sure will
continue this partnership, whats there to lose.
Google is going to buy out the world. |
| lfg18 on November 25, 2009 7:54 PM | I think google is growing at a frightening rate, we will soon have two microsofts, the bad thing is that google has its maps and its search engine, so that means they have better access to your info that any other private company... |
| jerry53 on November 27, 2009 7:04 PM | well my comment may be strange but i think that it is better that ads better suited for our prefernces and geographical areaare processed other than some random ad saying that i need more spice in sex life and should subscribe to their services those kind of ads make me mad and when i open some websites ads arise in such a way that makes you want to pull your hair out like yahoo and their gm car adverts. |
