Wednesday, April 01, 2009
No April Fooling: Google Cutbacks continue: including Adense Video Units
Google's streamlining process for its cross-platform advertising strategy continued today, as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) announced its plans to eliminate the Adsense Video Units feature. The sobering announcement on Google's Adsense Blog read:
After reviewing our AdSense video units feature, which allows you to show YouTube content and ads on your pages, we've found that it hasn't had the impact we had hoped for. As a result, we've decided to retire this feature at the end of April so we can focus our resources on other opportunities to help publishers earn from their sites.
The latest sweep came only a few days after 200 workers faced the chopping block in the sales and marketing division and a few weeks following the demise of the radio ad division(40 workers.)
Anyone with a decent grasp of media trends knew the imminent doom for print and radio ads, but Google's elimination of Adsense Video evoked critical responses. Matt Marshall of VentureBeat, declared Google's cross-platform advertising strategy is in shambles.According to Marshall, Google has spent roughly $10 billion on non-search initiatives and properties. His column reads more like a eulogy than a commentary:
A year or two ago, Google’s bold, sweeping advertising strategy seemed to be written in the stars: it was on a roll, and there was no stopping its algorithmic rigor from vanquishing old-economy advertising and industry titans. It was simply more efficient. But one by one, Google’s efforts proved much tougher than the company anticipated, and the economic contraction has only made things worse.Google increased its market share in display ads over the past year, but that growth came at a cost.Posted By Matt O'Hern at 04:09 PM
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