When Google first announced the acquisition of DoubleClick, a lot of people in the search engine marketing industry were concerned because the $3.1 billion company is also into the SEO business.
This presents a huge conflict of interest for Google being the leading search engine worldwide. Providing SEO services is certainly a questionable practice for a company who espouses fair and objective search platform. Google will have to let go of that SEO business.
Today, Google announced just that:
It’s clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google’s mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers. While we have not yet identified a buyer, we’ve received preliminary interest from a number of our current partners. Search Marketing will continue to run as a separate entity until the division is sold.
A good and fair move.