Google Offers to Change Ad Business to Fend Off Antitrust Suit

Google has offered to make changes to its digital ad business in an effort to head off a possible antitrust lawsuit, according to people familiar with the matter. But will global regulators and critics think the concessions are enough? WSJ tech reporter Sam Schechner joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss what Google is offering and what the changes could mean for the digital ad market.

The adblocking revolution is months away (with iOS 9) – with trouble for advertisers, publishers and Google

From The Overspill –

“Remember newspapers? In the old days, adverts appeared in print, on the radio and on the TV. Most ad-supported news organisations that have shifted to the internet began in print.

Ads in print were straightforward. Advertisers bought space, and editors could turn them down, or sometimes decide not to run them if a story broke that would bring about an awkward juxtaposition of, say, the advert for a shoe store on page 3 and the big breaking story now being placed on page 3 about people having feet crushed by a runaway steamroller. (The ad would get moved to another page.) Print ads were hard for advertisers to track, though they could use codes and so on that would clue them in to where someone had seen one if they responded directly.”

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