Oh Let Google Buy DoubleClick Already
I am getting really annoyed at all the governments who didn’t say word one about Microsoft acquiring aQuantive who are now persistently giving Google a hard time about their DoubleClick acquisition. Double standards like this make me crazy, but worse I think is how poorly educated all these governments are about technology, in this case specifically online advertising. It is very apparent that they just don’t know what they are talking about, and yet, they are persistent in bumbling along to try to investigate, interview, and generally just make a nuisance of themselves around this acquisition. They should fly in Danny Sullivan, or anyone with basic competency really (me?), to do a one day seminar on what online marketing is and how it works. Clearly they don’t understand the information Google already collects, or their current reach on the internet via all their products and services. They don’t understand the competitive environment for online advertising, or who the major players are in the space. As usual bureaucracy is wasting a lot of time and tax dollars on something that is going to have no positive impact for consumers, as opposed to say, doing something useful. Mark my words the acquisition will go through, so all of this is for naught. Go make me some national health care, or at this point, I’d even settle for an airline passenger bill of rights. Sad.
Unfortunately the ineptness at any government to understand technology is nothing new. Ted Stevens famous pronouncement that the internet was a “series of tubes” (hilarously remixed here) floored me at the level of incompetence being openly flouted. We should be embarrassed. Say what you will about the Clinton administration, but at least they had some basic understanding of the internet and wanted to foster it. The United States should be blanketed in free high speed wifi by now, but of course, the telecommunications industry being what it is, and our government being what they are, that just isn’t happening. Not even San Francisco has free wifi as yet, which is fairly awful given what a tech savvy city we are, and how many offers we’ve gotten from companies like Google and Earthlink who are willing to provide it. Think about how much innovation could come out into the economy if everyone had free internet access.
Shame on us really for electing such fools (not that are choices are all that great), but really our leadership needs to step it up when it comes to understanding online technology and its role in our economy and lives.
