Another day, another way for Google to control more of the confidential data of the Web's businesses:
Google is now the proud owner of Feedburner, a "leading provider of Web feed distribution and management tools," at a rumored acquisition price of $100 million.
Worried yet about Google Big Brother peering into your online business?
Google Analytics: Should Google be minding YOUR Web business? I undercored last month: Is it really prudent for Web sites to open their back office to Google? Should Google really know how its AdWords customers are investing in online advertising with Google competitors?
Google enthuses over its newly Googley Feeburner: "we constantly aim to give AdWords advertisers broader distribution to an even wider audience of users."
Dick Costolo, Feedburner CEO and estatic new Googler, weighs in on why Google is keen on Feedburner:
- Google's competencies and focus around publisher analytics, distribution, and monetization map perfectly to our suite of services.
- Publishers want a single dashboard and single source for the metrics that give them feedback about the value of their content and its impact on their business. By combining our market leading feed metrics with Google's market leading site and marketing analytics, publishers now get a comprehensive, 360-degree view of their audience. This 'total perspective' has long been a goal of ours, and we think our combined analytics offering is going to provide publishers with previously undiscovered insights and opportunities.
- The measurement of awareness advertising is evolving from unique impressions to audience engagement. By providing our hundreds of thousands of publishers with Google's world-class advertising marketplace and metrics, we can provide far more value to publishers and begin to deliver this next step in ROI measurement to advertisers.
Data, data and more business proprietary data, moving over to Google's worldwide server farms for perpetual "safekeeping."
What is to become of this latest big batch of confidential information on the businesses of others that Google acquires in acquiring Feedburner?
Feedburner is a website operated by Google Inc., Feedburner states. As such, the Google Privacy Policy rules. NOT a very reassuring state of affairs!
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