Google's DoubleClick revamp wants ads to say it in pictures

Having conquered the web's text-based ad market, Google is setting its sights on display ads - a market dominated by rival Yahoo!.

The search giant on Thursday took the wraps off a revamped DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a public exchange that allows publishers to offer excess ad inventory they can't sell to advertisers. Google said the exchange will meld the DoubleClick's ad exchange with Google's own technology.

Neal Mohan, Google's vice president of product management, said in a statement: "Better technology can help make display advertising work better for all involved. We're focused on growing the display advertising pie for everyone. The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is a major part of that goal."

The newly revamped exchange will incorporate Google's AdWords and AdSense programs, as well as feature real-time bidding and a new API designed for ad networks.

Yahoo!, which currently runs the largest online ad exchange through RightMedia, an exchange it purchased in 2007 for $680m, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google's dominance of the search engine advertising market has been fuelled by text ads. In 2008, it completed its $3.1bn acquisition of DoubleClick in hopes of expanding its presence in display ads, to this date more the province of its competitor Yahoo!. Display ads - banners or image-based ads - haven't produced the same return that search text ads have to this point but are still an important part of most websites.

Internet display advertising accounted for $7.6bn in 2008, roughly a third of the $23.4bn in revenue generated by all internet ads for the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Original article: Google rolls out revamped DoubleClick Ad Exchange from CNET News.com