Google Tweaks DoubleClick's Ad Server

Google has released a new version of DoubleClick’s core ad serving product for publishers – one it says should demonstrate its commitment to ad management products and to display advertising in general.

DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) now comes with more detailed reporting and forecasting data, as well as new yield optimization algorithms, according to Google. It also incorporates a public API that lets site owners integrate their first- and third-party apps with the DFP system.

Perhaps more importantly – from Google’s standpoint anyway – the DFP upgrades mean it will work better with the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, which launched officially last year. Publishers can use a “dynamic allocation” feature that exposes their inventory to numerous ad networks on the exchange.

A Google spokesperson noted the dynamic allocation feature existed previously, but with the revamp of both DFP and the ad exchange, Google hopes it will be adopted more widely.

“It’s not new and the fundamentals are unchanged,” he said. “It’s just that we’ve now significantly upgraded the two key elements…that speak to each other to make dynamic allocation possible.”

For smaller publishers, DoubleClick now offers DFP Small Business, a free version that will be the default ad serving platform for existing customers of Google Ad Manager. The Google Ad Manager product launched two years ago as a way for minor sites to make use of basic ad trafficking and reporting.

Finally, in addition to the feature changes, Google has also tweaked the product’s name and logo – doing away with the “DART” brand and incorporating a “by Google” tagline.

In a statement, Google said the tweaks reflect “the central role of DoubleClick’s technology products within Google’s display advertising business.”

The upgrade comes as DoubleClick rival Atlas Solutions – an operating unit of Microsoft – shows signs of abandoning its fight for ad serving supremacy. While the company continues to invest in ad management products for advertisers, recent actions indicate its publisher-facing AdManager product has been deemphasized internally. For instance, Microsoft recently struck a cross-promotional deal with open source ad serving firm OpenX – formerly a rival. Under that relationship, Microsoft is referring some sites to OpenX’s ad serving tools in exchange for OpenX’s in-kind promotion of Microsoft’s ad network offerings.