FTC Opens preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick

DoubleClick has the ability to track what sites people visit and Google has the ability to collect search histories.  Unfettered exclusive access to all this information could potentially allow Google, not the market, to set the prices

Today Google owns the Internet search engine market and DoubleClick owns the Internet banner advertisement market.  Now Google is bidding $3.1 billion to dominate the search engine market, the banner advertisement market… and a lot of data.

DoubleClick has the ability to track what sites people visit and Google has the ability to collect search histories.  Unfettered exclusive access to all this information could potentially allow Google, not the market, to set the prices for Internet advertisement.  We will be waiting for the Federal Trade Commission’s report.

A related news article can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/technology/29antitrust.html