We told you so. Doubleclick's planned network for buyers and sellers of online advertising, one of the draws for potential acquirors of the New York internet company, is to be unveiled today. The New York Times has the details. After the jump, three snap observations.
1. We've been here before. Does nobody have any sense of history? The New York Times reports that this exchange, for buyers and sellers of internet advertising, is the centerpiece of Doubleclick's growth plan, as if it were an entirely new initiative. It is, fundamentally, a return to Doubleclick's original business of the 1990s, which the company abandoned as its online publishing clients developed their own independent sales teams.
2. A network of networks. Doubleclick — which now handles the technical delivery of ads, rather than brokering the transaction — is referring to its new matchmaking role as an exchange, rather than a network. The company, which is in negotiations on a sale to Google or one of the search engine's competitors, is presumably hoping that existing ad networks such as Tribal Fusion, which sell online publishers' remnant inventory at bargain rates, will participate in the exchange — that Doubleclick, or its acquirer, can be a network of networks.
3. Useful innovation. It's a relief to see some of it — in contrast to the ridiculous and irrelevant schemes that attract the attention of the commentariat. Some tech evangelists, and the entrepreneurs who are hypnotized by them, are bored with plain-vanilla internet advertising. They've already moved on, to fantasize about in-widget promotion, or marketing opportunities in the semantic web. Wait up! Basic internet advertising is far from tapped out; advertisers are only now comfortable with it; the technology is still breathtakingly immature; the waste, in discarded inventory, is grotesque. It's as if every plane in the country was riding only 10% full, because the airlines hadn't discovered standby pricing, or even economy class. Doubleclick's exchange, or something like it, will at least fill those seats.
