Ever since Google close the deal on the Performics plan, we’ve heard SEO and SEO go on and on about how unethical it is for Google to be involved in SEO. Well, now they’ve gone and done it!
They’ve decided to sell the search marketing part of the business. On the Google blog you’ll read:
Recently we completed this process for the DoubleClick Performics businesses, and have decided to split them into two separately-run business units: Affiliate Marketing and Search Marketing.
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.
That’s good news for search marketers. What it means is we won’t have to compete with Google to rank well in its own search engine. That would be a fatally flawed plan! But, thanks to Google’s foresight and its ability to listen to the market, we don’t have to worry about it. It’s tough enough to run a search marketing campaign as it is without having to compete with the monster of all search engines. Thanks Google! We still love you (well, some of us do any way).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but all looks well and it should be good.