Prices rise for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit after Mar. 24
It’s been clear what Google’s plan is for the display advertising infrastructure. It wants to piece to piece an end to end system. The charitable view is the driving force behind this is an effort to bring simplicity to an overly complex landscape. The less charitable view is Google wants to dominate display the same way it dominates search. There’s probably some truth to both. Jay Sears, general manager of the ContextWeb Ad Exchange, has a not completely unbiased view in AdAge of the Google move to acquire Admeld. Sears doesn’t bemoan Google’s efforts to build its share of queries bid on exchanges.
My concern is just the opposite — that Google’s peers Microsoft, Yahoo and others — are not being diabolical enough. We need more diabolical liquidity, otherwise we will have a display advertising monopoly. And that’s only fun for one person at the party. Google has been building its dominance in display in plain sight yet few seem to understand how to counterbalance its cunning and impactful moves.
More in Media
Cloudflare’s compliant crawler highlights tension – and opportunity – in the emerging AI content market
Cloudflare faces tension in its new role: sitting in the middle between publishers and AI companies while balancing trust, control and monetization.
Media Briefing: What to expect at the Digiday Publishing Summit, March 2026 edition
Execs from The Atlantic, Arena Group, Bloomberg, Business Insider, The Guardian, New York Post, People Inc., Washington Post, and more, will share their strategies on everything from zero-click audience strategy, to AI licensing deals and RAG readiness, to how they’re embracing creator strategies to help boost engagement with younger audiences.
Why one creator commerce platform is connecting brands and creators for ‘flat-fee’ campaigns
Quick Collabs is LTK’s latest attempt to make creator marketing campaigns faster and more scalable. for brands and creators alike.