Internet search leader Google has introduced AdPlanner, a free online tool aimed at helping advertisers find  the best Web sites to spend marketing campaign dollars with, in a new product launch which has placed the Mountain View, California-based company into completion with other Internet metrics firms such as comScore, Nielsen Online, Alexa, Experian, Quantcast, Hitwise and Compete. Shares of Reston, Virginia-based comScore fell more than 22 percent during trading Tuesday after Google announced the AdPlanner product. Google Launches AdPlanner Google AdPlanner combines information from the search giant's own databases with data gathered by third party firms and from human panels to show advertisers which Web sites their target audiences are likely to visit, including such demographic information as gender, age, education level, household income and previous online behavior. These statistics and others are being made available through AdPlanner with advertising agencies and marketers in mind, unlike a similar Google tool called Trends for Websites that the company launched last week aimed at the general public. Despite having different intended audiences, both tools appear to operate using data Google has gathered from the same combination of sources. Google combined various information to come up with the new Web traffic measurement data, including certain usage history from its own Google Analytics tool allowing Webmasters to keep track of individual sites, some Google search engine data, "opt-in consumer panel data," as well as unspecified "third-party market research," according to Google, which did not release details about these additional sources included in the updated Google Trends for Websites and AdPlanner services. Identifies Potential Advertising Partner Sites With AdPlanner Google has moved to strengthen its online advertising sales business by adding a free media planning and research tool marketers can use to try to identify precisely where to deliver ads that could prove more effective than sites recommended by rival services such as comScore. Google's Emel Mutlu, a member of the company's AdWords advertising programs, described how AdPlanner worked. "Enter demographics and sites associated with your target audience, and the tool will return information about sites, both on and off the Google content network, that your audience is likely to visit," Mutlu wrote Tuesday in a message announcing AdPlanner on the company's AdWords blog. Access to AdPlanner, which Mutlu said was designed specifically for media planners, was available by invitation only to those who filled out a form on the company's Web site, and was expected to remain free while in its testing stages. Google did not reveal information regarding whether certain AdPlanner services could eventually have fees added. Should AdPlanner remain free it would likely be an attractive solution for advertising agencies and especially smaller online advertisers, some of which presently spend money to purchase Web traffic measurement and usage demographic information from rival services such as those from comScore. A Long-Questioned Web Metrics Playing Field The Web metrics playing field Google has entered with AdPlanner has long faced skeptics critical of inherently imprecise techniques used to try to gauge an online world that isn't controlled by any one government, organization or company, even one as large as Google. While Google has not revealed how many sites are encompassed within its new Web tracking services, there is little doubt among industry analysts that the search leader presently has access to as much online usage data as any firm. Google said AdPlanner can be used to "keep track of the millions of sites out there that might be just right for your campaign," including those which would be, according to Mutlu "otherwise be hard to find." AdPlanner appeared to be a more robust version of Google Trends for Websites, the service updated last week to show consumers the popularity of Web sites and some information on how people may be finding them through Google's search engine. Trends for Websites allows registered Google users to compare the popularity of up to five Web sites at once and to see the results on a graph, while AdPlanner allows advertisers to "get more detail like demographics and related searches for a particular site, or you can get aggregate statistics for the sites you've added to your media plan," according to Mutlu. Although not directly integrated with any online advertising program for ad sellers, Google has made it possible to export all of the information gathered in AdPlanner into the MediaVisor program of its DoubleClick property. In March Google completed its $3.1 billion purchase of the New York-based online advertising giant DoubleClick after intense antitrust scrutiny in both the United States and Europe. Google Launches Media Metrics Tool AdPlanner Information from AdPlanner was also available for export in a standard spreadsheet format, Google said, in a move that would allow advertisers to view the demographic and metrics information using a variety of data  analysis software packages. AdPlanner has used user-controlled filters to find those Web sites that Google suggests as matching particular user demographics, including the ability to show only Web properties that are available through Google's popular AdSense advertising program. The new Google metrics tool was not built to connect advertisers with Web site owners, at least not in the test version launched Tuesday. Google business product manager Wayne Lin was slated to officially announce AdPlanner Tuesday evening in New York at an advertising industry event focusing on audience measurement, conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation. Soon Google is expected to roll out a separate online advertising product aimed at tracking how consumers respond to Web ads, a further sign that the company has made a move to expand on the success of the simple text-based ads it has shown alongside search results on its search engine. Related Links:
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