Google announced this month that it will purchase DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion. This acquisition combines the largest search engine with the largest ad management firm.

Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick will allow advertiser trafficking and reporting for campaigns to be available via a single interface. Media owners and businesses can use DoubleClick's Dart program to monitor how many customers they reach via web ads.

This purchase will extend Google's lead over Microsoft and Yahoo in the online-advertising market. Google's share of the search market is over 60 percent. The company has staked its future growth on diversifying away from search advertising and building an ad network spanning different media. With the range of options available now, it becomes far more critical to understand the integration of search and display advertising in a campaign.

Yahoo has announced that all Yahoo Mail users will have free unlimited email storage starting in May 2007. The current storage limit is 1 GB per account. Yahoo mail currently has 250 million global users, more than any other online service (MSN Live : 28 million and Gmail : 51 million users).

With this change, Yahoo leapfrogs Gmail (2.8 GB) and MSN Live Mail (2GB). Yahoo is intent on maintaining its lead over Gmail and MSN in the online email space. Advertisers should look forward to targeting a growing base of email users.

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