DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google that develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers (Universal McCann Interactive, AKQA etc.) and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others. DoubleClick's headquarters is in New York City, United States.

DoubleClick was founded in 1995 by Kevin O'Connor and Dwight Merriman. It was formerly listed as "DCLK" on the NASDAQ, and was purchased by private equity firms Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity in July 2005. In March 2008, Google acquired DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion. Unlike many other dot-com companies, it survived the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Today, it focuses on uploading ads and reporting their performance.

History[link]

Early developments [link]

DoubleClick was founded as one of the earliest known Application Service Provider (ASP) for internet "ad-serving", primarily banner ads. After an IPO on the NASDAQ under the "DCLK" ticker symbol in early 1998, the company was inappropriately associated with an internet traffic report including Yahoo!, AOL, Alta Vista and Excite where the company was listed within the top 10 internet websites in the world -- when in fact it was delivering as many ad impressions at the time as these early major internet properties were delivering page views. Its DoubleClick DART (Dynamic Advertising Reporting & Targeting) ASP/SaaS ad-serving technology was second-to-none, allowing clear targeting & reporting of ad-serving per media property for websites within its network and technology sectors.

In 1999, at a cost of US $1.7 billion, DoubleClick merged with the data-collection agency Abacus Direct, which works with offline catalog companies. This raised fears that the combined company would link anonymous Web-surfing profiles with personally identifiable information (name, address, telephone number, e-mail, address, etc.) collected by Abacus. This merger made waves and was heavily criticized by privacy organizations. Controversy grew when it was discovered that sensitive financial information users entered on a popular Web site that offered financial software was being sent to DoubleClick, which delivered the advertisements. Much of this controversy was generated by statements made by Jason Catlett of Junkbusters, who claimed that DoubleClick was doing and/or intended to do things that it had never mentioned or included in any planned or announced service. The Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into DoubleClick's collection and compilation of personal information shortly after the Abacus acquisition, in reaction to which DoubleClick announced that it would not merge the DoubleClick and Abacus databases. The FTC concluded its investigation in early 2001.^[1]

In April 2005, Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco-based private equity firm, announced its intent to acquire the company and operate it as two separate divisions with two separate CEOs for TechSolutions and Data Marketing. The deal was closed in July 2005. Hellman & Friedman announced in December 2006 the sale of Abacus to Epsilon Interactive, whose parent company is AllianceData Systems Corporation.

Acquisition by Google, Inc. [link]

Google announced on April 13, 2007 that it had come to a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick for US $3.1 billion in cash.^[2]

US lawmakers have investigated possible privacy and antitrust implications of the proposed acquisition.^[3] At hearings, representatives from Microsoft warned of a potential monopolistic effect, the irony of which was not lost on the committee chairperson.^[4] On December 20, 2007, the FTC approved Google's purchase of DoubleClick from its owners Hellman & Friedman and JMI Equity, saying, "After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition."^[5] European Union regulators followed suit on March 11, 2008. Google completed the acquisition later that day.

On April 2, 2008, Google announced it would cut 300 jobs at DoubleClick due to organizational redundancies. Selected employees would be matched within the Google organization as per position and experience.^[6]

Criticism [link]

DoubleClick is often linked with the controversy over spyware because browser HTTP cookies are set to track users as they travel from website to website and record which commercial advertisements they view and select while browsing.^[7] DoubleClick is considered to be malware by several commercial organizations (Adaware, Symantec, Spybot) which detect it and provide the tools to block/remove it.

DoubleClick has also been criticized for misleading users by offering an opt-out option that is insufficiently effective. According to a San Francisco IT consulting group, although the opt-out option affects cookies, DoubleClick does not allow users to opt out of IP address-based tracking.^[8]

DoubleClick with MSN were shown serving malware via drive-by download exploits by a group of attackers for some time in December 2010.^[9]

Products [link]

DoubleClick offers technology products and services that are sold primarily to advertising agencies and media companies to allow clients to traffic, target, deliver, and report on their interactive advertising campaigns. The company's main product line is known as DART, which is designed for advertisers and publishers.

DART automates the administration effort in the ad buying cycle for advertisers (DART for Advertisers, or DFA) and the management of ad inventory for publishers (DART for Publishers, or DFP). It is intended to increase the purchasing efficiency of advertisers and to minimize unsold inventory for publishers.

DART Enterprise is the rebranded version of NetGravity AdServer, which DoubleClick acquired with its purchase of NetGravity in 1999. Unlike the DFA and DFP products which are both Software as a Service SaaS products, DART Enterprise is a standalone product running on Linux.

In 2004 DoubleClick acquired Performics.^[10] Performics offers affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, and search engine marketing solutions. The marketing solutions were integrated into the core DART system and rebranded DART search.

DoubleClick Advertising Exchange (released Q2 2007) attempts to go even further by connecting both media buyers and sellers on an exchange much like a traditional stock exchange.

Data collection [link]

DoubleClick targets along various criteria. Targeting can be accomplished using IP addresses, business rules set by the client or by reference to information about users stored within cookies on their machines. Some of the types of information collected are:

• Web browser
• Operating System
• ISP
• Bandwidth
• Time of day

In addition, the cookie information may be used to target ads based on the number of times the user has been exposed to any given message. This is known as "frequency capping".

See also[link]

• Fastclick
• Smart AdServer

References [link]

External links [link]

• DoubleClick USA
• DoubleClick Europe
• Performics
• Adx - Doubleclick's Advertising Exchange
• Secure Hosts file
• DFPTutorial.com - Understanding DFP Small Business Ad Server

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2012)

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.^[1]

History[link]

The earliest recorded use^{[citation needed]} of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." ^{[2][dubious – discuss]} In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

It was also used as a term for a drug dealer in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such media as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me", William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch, and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.

The use of this term was expanded to counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in U.S. News and World Report, had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into humorous usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine Easyriders which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

In present day, the phrase has been popularized in commercials and cinema, featuring particularly prominently as a recurring motif in the 2003 film School of Rock.^[3][4][5][6]

Use as praise[link]

The term has also been used as an approbation or form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's pre-eminent position at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."^{[7][dubious – discuss]}

In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment ("you da man!") indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial.

See also[link]

• Absentee landlord
• Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
• New World Order (conspiracy theory)
• Ruling class
• The Establishment
• Power elite
• Corrections officer
• YTMND

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). Random House Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House.