January 4, 2010 | Digital Privacy

Google Expands Its Tentacles Buying Cell Phone Advertiser AdMob

As if Google didn’t have enough reach by being the owner of DoubleClick (the ad firm), it’s buying AdMob, which I just learned is the major (and just about only) ad firm for the phenomal price of three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Apparently AdMob’s focus is on web ads that display when you view a website on a mobile phone and on ads that display on mobile phone applications.

TechCrunch discusses the acquisition here. Google blogged about it. And so did Admob. Google also posted a note for the press.

FTC Good Houskeeping Seal of Approval still required

But, like Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, which is still being held up, the FTC wants to investigate the AdMob buy before it approves it, according to the New York Times Bits Blog. Given that Google’s deal with Yahoo was basically nixed by the Justice Department, it’s anybody’s guess as to who will be serving the ads on your cell phone this year.

My comments

It’s sort of like the frog being slowly boiled as Google continues to buy every company that remotely touches our digital lives, as well as building its own data tentacles. It’s becoming increasingly difficult not to interact with Google even if you don’t want to. At the very least we can be aware of who has information regarding us.