It’s like the Justice League of social media: Google, Yahoo, and News Corp.’s MySpace.com announced on Tuesday that they have formed the OpenSocial Foundation, a non-profit group to support the OpenSocial initiative that Google kick-started last year as a way to promote a universal standard for developer applications on social-networking sites.

The OpenSocial Foundation is expected to be formed within 90 days, with more OpenSocial partners from across the Web on board in addition to the three responsible for the announcement.

The specific purpose of the new non-profit, according to a release, is “to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web.” It’s a particularly crucial move for Google, which has been eager to emphasize that OpenSocial is a community standard, not a Mountain View project.

“OpenSocial has been a community-driven specification from the beginning,” Joe Kraus, Google’s director of product management, said in a joint statement from the three companies. “The formation of this foundation will ensure that it remains so in perpetuity. Developers and websites should feel secure that OpenSocial will be forever free and open.”

Indeed, the OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent entity with its own intellectual property and governance policies. Related assets are expected to be in place by the beginning of July.

Google first announced OpenSocial in October as a response to the plethora of announcements on behalf of social-networking sites that they would follow in Facebook’s footsteps and create developer platforms of their own. With so many disparate developer strategies, the social-media landscape could grow even more fragmented, and Google launched the OpenSocial API (and later the Social Graph API) as a means to provide some connectivity. Major players like MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, and Plaxo, along with a host of smaller social networks and many that are unknown in the U.S., all opted to participate in the new initiative.

Some OpenSocial platforms, like foundation partner MySpace’s, are already live. Others are still in testing phases or have yet to make any kind of debut. Despite delays, the OpenSocial developer community appears to be unfazed.

The only major social network not to commit to OpenSocial in one way or another has been Facebook, the site that started the social-networking platform craze in the first place.

And Facebook won’t be joining the OpenSocial Foundation, either. “As the largest contributor to the memecached system, Facebook has long been a leader and supporter of open source initiatives but will not join the foundation,” a statement from the company read. “The company will continue to evaluate partnership opportunities that will benefit the 300,000 Facebook Platform developers while improving the Facebook user experience.”

At the core of the new foundation will be the practice of upholding OpenSocial’s tenets: that specifications are available under a Creative Commons license, that it’s shaped by the developer community and social networks’ user bases rather than corporate decisions, and that it will be committed to the development of the new Shindig open source reference implementation, part of the Apache Software Foundation incubator.

Open standards like OpenSocial, OAuth, and OpenID have been some of the most heated subjects of discussion in the social-media developer community over the past year, nearly dominating the conversation at conventions like the Future of Web Apps conference in February. With some of the biggest names in technology now noticing and jumping on board these formerly grassroots projects, they’ve gained a newfound legitimacy–not to mention the financial backing of a Yahoo or a Google.

But in a conference call with press and analysts Tuesday, executives from Yahoo, Google, and MySpace asserted that the OpenSocial Foundation will be a standalone body to the point that Google will relinquish its trademark on “OpenSocial” and the ownership of the Web site.

“This is just the next evolution in where OpenSocial needs to be heading, because it is a community-driven specification,” Google’s Joe Kraus said in the call.
[Source: News.Com]

Google plans to make an unspecified number of job cuts at DoubleClick Inc following the closing of its $3.1 billion acquisition of the advertising technology company.“An immediate task we’ll undertake over the next few weeks is matching and aligning DoubleClick employees with our organizational plan for the business,” Google said in a blog post.

“As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the US and possibly in other regions as well,” the company said. DoubleClick has 1,500 employees. Outside of the United States, Google will begin consultations with employee organizations on potential job reductions in line with local laws, it said.

NEW YORK: Google Inc, whose shares have plunged more than 40 per cent since November and could fall almost another 20 per cent due to the US economic slowdown and aggressive spending by the Internet search engine company, according to the latest issue of Barron’s.

Google shares dropped to a new 52-week low of $435.78 Tuesday before bouncing back to close at $444.60, down $12.42.  Google shares closed on Friday at $433.35.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union regulators on Tuesday cleared Google Inc.’s US$3.1 billion (€2.13 billion) bid for online ad tracker DoubleClick, saying it won’t curb competition for online ads.
The approval clears the last major hurdle for a deal the U.S. Department of Justice approved in December, overruling complaints from rivals Yahoo Inc. and
Microsoft Corp., and from advertisers and privacy advocates claiming the purchase gave Google too much control over the online ad market.
But the European Commission dismissed the objections, saying it found no proof that Google and DoubleClick would be able to marginalize competitors because Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL provided alternatives for placing ads on Web sites.
Google and DoubleClick are not currently rivals, it said, and Google’s purchase of even a potential competitor would not have an adverse impact on competition in the online ad market.
Regulators said their decision was based exclusively on the economic aspects of the deal and it had no bearing on the companies’ obligations under EU rules on personal privacy protection or how personal data is processed.

European data privacy regulators are currently examining how far search engines’ data protection policies comply with existing EU law and are due to publish a report in April. They said last month that rules would also apply to search engines headquartered outside Europe.
New York-based DoubleClick helps its customers place and track online advertising, including search ads, which Google _ more than its nearest search competitors Yahoo and Microsoft _ has turned into a lucrative business. It places ads on Web pages that targeted consumers are likely to use, generating money for smaller publishers and lesser-visited pages.

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc.’s long-anticipated acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick Inc. is expected to turn the Internet search leader into an even more powerful marketing vehicle that’s fueled by better insights about consumers.

The $3.1 billion deal, completed Tuesday after nearly a year of regulatory wrangling, also may intensify the pressure on Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. to resolve their stormy courtship so they don’t risk further distractions while Google tries to sprint further ahead in the race for Internet advertising.

Google took control of DoubleClick a few hours after Europe’s antitrust regulators removed the final stumbling block by approving a deal that was first announced 11 months ago.

U.S. regulators cleared the transaction in December, casting aside objections from Microsoft and other companies that argued DoubleClick would give Google too much control over online advertising and potentially sensitive information about consumer behavior on the Internet.

Besides opening up new opportunities, Google’s takeover of DoubleClick will create more challenges for a management team already grappling with concerns about how the slowing U.S. economy will affect the company’s earnings growth this year.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt acknowledged in a statement that the biggest acquisition in the company’s 9 1/2-year history probably will trigger an unspecified number of layoffs after years of relentless hiring. The looming job cuts will be concentrated in the United States, although Schmidt said offices in other countries could be affected.

New York-based DoubleClick has 1,500 employees with offices in France, England, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Australia and Spain. Mountain View-based Google employs nearly 17,000 workers, up from 1,600 just four years ago.

Google’s recently slumping shares soared with the rest of the stock market Tuesday, gaining $26.22, or 6.3 percent, to $439.84. The company’s stock price remains down by 36 percent so far this year.

DoubleClick is expected to broaden Google’s already extensive reach in the $40 billion Internet advertising market.

Google has been the market’s most dominant player so far, generating more than $16 billion in revenue last year. Most of the money flowed in from short, written ads that Google places alongside search results and other Web content.

DoubleClick specializes in placing more dynamic, multimedia ads, a form of marketing that is expected to become more important in the next few years as big companies spend more money promoting their brands online.

With somewhere between $300 million and $400 million in annual revenue, DoubleClick isn’t expected to have a significant impact on Google’s profit this year.

But the addition is bound to give Google an important advantage over its rivals, said Russ Mann, chief executive of Covario, which helps manage and analyze online advertising campaigns.

“Google is going to be like a runaway locomotive coming full steam ahead now,” Mann said.

Standard & Poor’s equity analyst Scott Kessler isn’t convinced the deal will pay off for Google as quickly as some might think, largely because the company doesn’t have a track record of mining big profits from its past acquisitions. For instance, Google paid $1.76 billion for online video leader YouTube in November 2006, but the site still isn’t producing significant profits.

“It’s definitely a big deal, but whether they can execute on the potential remains to be seen,” Kessler said.

But just the prospect of Google growing even stronger now that DoubleClick is in its fold could be enough to prompt Microsoft to step up its pursuit of Yahoo or withdraw its offer to spend the money on other expansion opportunities.

“Everyone knew the (DoubleClick) deal was coming, but (the consummation) probably contributes a degree of urgency because now it is real,” Kessler said.

Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for more than $40 billion, but the unsolicited bid has been at a standstill for the past month because the two sides can’t agree on a price.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo had opposed Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, arguing that it could stifle competition in the online advertising market and potentially compromise consumer privacy.

Microsoft declined to comment Tuesday. Yahoo didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google’s pursuit of DoubleClick had a domino effect almost as soon as the two companies announced their marriage plans last April. Within a few months, Microsoft, Yahoo and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL had spent more than $7 billion snapping up other online ad networks and tools to mount a counterattack.

Besides helping Google build a one-step shop for advertisers and Web publishers, DoubleClick also brings a wealth of information about consumer behavior accumulated through years of tracking online surfing.

Coupled with the knowledge Google has gleaned from analyzing its users’ search requests, DoubleClick’s data will provide an even better understanding about what appeals to each individual consumer.

Google, which has embraced “don’t be evil” as its motto, has pledged to vigilantly guard the information. Management believes the data will lead to more relevant and less annoying ads, making the Internet more enjoyable.

“We will be able to help publishers and advertisers generate more revenue,” Schmidt wrote. “That in turn will fuel the creation of even more rich and diverse content for Internet users everywhere.”

But consumer watchdogs are worried about too much power — and information — being concentrated at a single company.

The Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocate, said regulators’ failure to impose safeguards had “helped strengthen a growing digital colossus that will now be in a dominant position to shape much of the global future of the Internet.”

AP Business Writer Aoife White in Brussels, Belgium, contributed to this report.