Google Buys Doubleclick
If you haven’t already heard, the big G, Google, just splurged US$3.1B in cash to buy the veteran ad network Doubleclick. This is a very important online milestone, and no doubt some smaller ad agencies are quaking in their e-boots. Doubleclick was one of the very first ad networks. Their whois record says the domain was created May 29, 1991 (and registered until 2013). I know I saw their CPM (cost per mille/1000) banner ads on websites by early 1996, if not before that. (I didn’t see a web browser until 1995, I believe.)
I’m not going to expound here about the buy, but will instead point you at Mashable, Download Squad, GigaOm, and Google Adsense blogs. The interesting thing to note is that Google’s share price dropped on the news, though only slightly. Just recently, Google has been extending themselves into both print advertising and TV ads, not to mention pay-per-action (PPA) ads.
The GodTube
There’s news that in the US, Christians are more likely to get divorced than atheists. What’s more, apparently going to church together as a family does not necessarily shield them from breaking up. [via Mark Robinson] It’s a shame that now, about 50% of marriages are expected to end in divorce. (I remember how shocked I was in the late 1970s or early 1980s when I heard on the radio that 1 in 3 marriages were expected to fail.)
Well, possibly to counteract some of this, someone’s come up with a site called GodTube. (Believe it or not, it’s officially in beta.) The site offers video chat and video email, as well as a blog, widgets, and “ministry” content. I’ve said this elsewhere: applications like Skype could be used to minister to a “flock”. Lonely people who cannot make it to a place of worship could talk to someone. But GodTube goes a step further and lets you video chat with members.
Now, when I checked, no one was online. But surprisingly, one member’s profile showing on the home page labelled him “The Atheist”. Wooo, what a discussion he’d raise on the site.
What’s Twitter Missing?
Every once in a while, I’ll recall someone I knew or met a few years back and then try to find them online. I was just on Twitter and the “find someone” feeling struck me. Except Twitter does not have a search feature. In fact, I believe Nick Wilson was talking about Twitter really needs to expand its social networking features, though I can’t seemed to find the right podcast.
At any rate, the simplest feature, search, should be available on the site as a starting point. Sure, there’s an API for developing applications over Twitter, but it may or may not let you build a Twitter search feature – either for previous tweets or for a person. Social search is a hot feature, and it may ultimately harm Twitter not to have it.
Originally posted on April 16, 2007 @ 8:00 am