GoogleClick approved in the US

Google's acquisition of DoubleClick has been approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The deal is not yet cleared by the EU.

If the merger is approved in the EU and goes ahead, it will likely affect the market for "remnant" banner advertising more than premium branded banner advertising market. The reason being that Google can better utilize different kinds of intention and behavioral data to improve DART's "remnant" banner ad targeting, but the merger doesn't change the way media buyers buy premium branded advertising.

Stina Honkamaa new Managing Director of Google Sweden

Fredrik Wass writes that Stina Honkamaa, managing director of Carat Sweden, will switch jobs to become the managing director of Google Sweden from the end of January 2008.

Thoughts on Google's playbook

This post is very much thinking out loud, so please add your thoughts in the comments.

Google is launching a lot of products and initiatives, lately Knol, OpenSocial and Android, in addition to their core search and advertising business. Often Google is given the benefit of doubt that was given to Microsoft in the 90's, i.e. Google's new product is expected to dominate the market. History indicates that such an expectation isn't always well-founded.

Google Base, Blogger and Checkout are some of the products that didn't go on and dominate their markets.

Orkut has been successful in some markets, but is not a global phenomenon.

Google Apps hasn't replaced Microsoft Office, and is not close to doing it anytime soon, but has some traction and is improving product quality.

Is there a better way to forecast, than assuming Google will always win, what Google products will take off?

First let's remember Google's "70/20/10 rule": 70 % of efforts are spent on search and ads, 20 % on nearby business areas and 10 % new stuff.

Generally products outside the search and ads area are likely to get less resources. Thus their success isn't guaranteed by Google's sheer size or its lead in search or advertising. Some of these will compete on the same terms as leading Internet services, others seem to be more experimental.

The products Google seems more likely to invest in are those that establish or fortify Google's standing as the primary search or start page of its users (iGoogle, Google Reader, Google News etc).

Then there are products that make Google's strategic position stronger, but may not directly be highly financially lucrative. Blogger is one, as blogging weakens traditional media companies strategic position when dealing with Google.

Knol seems to be an experimental product outside Google's core. Even if it had a better product design, I'd give it quite a small chances of being as big as Wikipedia or Yahoo! Answers.

OpenSocial seems like an initiative that lies in the "new 10 %". But it has the bonus of making life more difficult for Facebook. Might work, but I don't think the partner alliance is dedicated to making it a success.

Open Handset Alliance and related mobile initiatives are a mixed bag. At its core is about search and related advertising, i.e. billions of dollars of potential revenue. The things Google is doing right now seems to be strategic moves (open handsets and open spectrum) I'd put in the 10 % new box and user-behavior changing stuff which today is in the 20 % box but is moving into the 70 % box. Success is not guaranteed, but the upside is great so Google is likely to, in the school of Steve Ballmer, keep on pounding until they get it right.

Bring it on! Facebook vs Google

Google made a lot of noise when it (pre-)announced OpenSocial in early November. Its alliance with a lot of social networks were, supposedly, going to put some major pressure on Facebook. But announcing before you're live has its disadvantages, especially when your competitor licenses its platform structure to the sites you want in your "alliance". Today Bebo , the largest UK and third largest US social network, said it will launch a clone of Facebook Applications in addition to supporting OpenSocial.

Internet companies in general and social networks in particular might not like Facebook as a competitor, but neither do they like Google. As a third player, hedging your bets and supporting both, and making neither an automatic winner, makes sense.

Update: Or my take on this might be completely wrong.

Meet the new boss, same as the old

Dare Obasanjo (Microsoft): Google transforms into Microsoft of old and one of the more interesting postings on OpenSocial I've read so far. I guess quite a few of you readers of this blog have given OpenSocial some thought. Please write your thoughts in the comments.

Google buys Jaiku

Google acquires Jaiku. Big congratulations to Jyri and co.

Johan Kinnander lämnar Google

Googles Sverigechef Johan Kinnander har slutat efter 2,5 år. Såväl Google som Johan är fåordiga till det hela. Det är värt att notera att Henrik Höglund, som var vapendragare till Johan Kinnander redan på Espottingtiden, tidigare i år lämnade Google för att bli Executive Vice President, Advertising Sales hos Habbo Hotel-skaparna Sulake.

Docs & Spreadsheets & Presentations

Om inte Microsoft börjar spela hardball på allvar efter det här så är det bara att inse att Eric Schmidt med flera håller på att betala tillbaka för att Microsoft vann matcherna under 1990-talet. Med råge.