Google Acquires AppJet

Another sign of the importance a certain search giant places on Google Wave came today as the acquisition of a company called AppJet was announced.  AppJet offers a product that mirrors certain aspects of Google Wave, only since it's been around for a little longer, may have one or more legs up.

Here are some of AppJet's vital stats: it was founded in mid-2007.  It's received about $715,000 in funding to date.  And three of the five men listed on an official "Meet the Team" page have worked at Google before.

As for AppJet's main product, the homepage explains, "EtherPad is the only web-based word processor that allows people to work together in really real-time. . . .  The result is a new and productive way to collaborate on text documents, useful for meeting notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and more."

It's likely that the best bits and pieces of EtherPad will now be rolled into Google Wave.  The less definite part is how much Google paid for the privilege - no details have been disclosed.

Just the same, Google's other recent acquisitions have involved advertising, VoIP, and mobile businesses, which puts AppJet in pretty important company.

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Google Obtains Access To TiVo Data

Google TV Ads is about to become a significantly more powerful marketing system.  A new pact with TiVo will allow Google to gather (and then pass on) very precise data about which commercials are being viewed, and even (to a lesser degree) who is doing the watching.

Mike Steib, Google's director of emerging platforms, explained the arrangement in a formal statement.  "This deal with TiVo will give advertisers access to even more anonymized viewership data, making Google's dataset one of the best in the industry," Steib said.  "Advertisers can use this data to understand which audiences and ads are most effective, which we think will ultimately lead to more relevant ads for viewers."

This development is likely to result in heavier use of Google TV Ads, too.  After all, the more data Google can provide, the less risky its program will seem, perhaps causing marketers to embrace it over alternatives or give TV ads a shot for the very first time.

What's a little harder to discern is how TiVo benefits from the arrangement.  Presumably Google paid more than a couple of dollars for access to TiVo users' data; all Todd Juenger, TiVo's vice president and general manager of audience research and measurement, would say is that this acts "to help the media industry better understand the effectiveness of ad campaigns in an evolving TV landscape."

Anyway, Google TV Ads is supposed to be able to reach 96 million households as things stand, and has served over 100 billion ad impressions to date.

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Google Gets a New Real-Time Infrastructure for Display Ads

Google just announced that it is acquiring Teracent, a provider of "intelligent dynamic display advertising." The company considers itself a pioneer in dynamic ad serving and optimization solutions. Google appears to agree.

Teracent provides machine-learning algorithms, which can create customized display ads based on thousands of different creative elements. The infrastructure Teracent brings to the table allows for real-time assembly of dynamic ads. It's designed to determine the optimal selection of each ad element and return it based on the objectives of the campaign.

"As you know, we've been busy releasing new features and products to help improve display advertising on the web for everyone," Google says. "We believe that Teracent's technology fits neatly into these efforts."

Google says the one on the right was created with Teracent's technology.

"Teracent's technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors," the company adds. "These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads."

"The infrastructure, opportunities and technical depth that Google will provide for Teracent customers means a future of product innovation for Teracent's dynamic ad optimization platform," Teracent says in their own announcement.

Google says the technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns, while enabling publishers to make more money from their ad space.

Teracent's technology will be available to all Google advertisers running display ads, including DoubleClick clients. The deal is expected to close this quarter, subject to various, but unnamed closing conditions.

Integration details will be announced after the deal is officially closed. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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