Google Owns Performics (By Extension)

Now that the DoubleClick / Google marriage has been blessed by both the European Commission and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, SEOs and SEMs everywhere will be eager to see what Google will do with Performics. Performics is a Search Engine Marketing company owned by DoubleClick and so Google now owns a Search Engine Marketing company by the fact that they own DoubleClick.

And to think that Google had the nerve to penalize US just for selling a few text-links on our blog … wow.

Here is a quote from Performics’ web site that I thought summed it all up pretty well:

Together, DoubleClick Performics and DoubleClick offer clients an unparalleled range of marketing solutions and are uniquely positioned to compare effectiveness across marketing channels for valued clients.

I particularly liked the phrase “uniquely positioned“. THAT is somewhat understating it, I think. Imagine being able to pick up the phone and call Google to find out what to do to get a particular site ranking #1… Why would ANYONE hire any other SEM/SEO firm? After all, if you wanted your brand new site to shoot to the top of the SERPs, wouldn’t you STRONGLY consider the Search Engine Marketing company owned by the number one Search Engine? Of course you would. At the very least, the fact that Performics and Google are related has to carry a ton of clout, even if Google claims that they are not going to give special treatment to Performics’ clients.

Danny Sullivan posted about this today in a post that would have taken me about 5 months to complete – good job, Danny.