Just saw this morning that Google launched a new Ad management tool called Admanager. It’s definitely an interesting move by Google and it will most probably serve most Webmasters as long as it’s free. So far I haven’t had a chance to test it, but since I worked on a few adservers and Openads in my life, I can tell that OpenX has still a good stand in the business. Here my reasons:
1. OpenX can be modified in any way. It can be used as an ad exchange place, mobile adserver or in any other possible way.
2. OpenX is free, while Google’s admanager is going to charge a commission
4. Privacy issues - Google will drive the majority of most websites organic and paid traffic. At the same time it will pay the webmasters for their traffic (Adsense) and eventually even analyze it (Google Analytics / Google Optimizer). Do we really want to put all eggs in one basket?
5. OpenX is independent from third party advertisers and is open to any Non-Google network.
6. I cannot proof it, but Google will certainly push their Adsense and Doubleclick advertising clients ( quote: “AdSense integration (optional):Consistently deliver the highest-paying ad by enabling AdSense.”:-) )
7. Google’s Admanager won’t allow direct sign on for new advertisers. Openads offers plugins which allow also small webmasters to sell ads directly.
On the negative side I believe OpenX is not very user friendly and the hosted solution is overdue. OpenAds also lacks a clean interface and a more simple version would certainly serve most users.
Overall I wished Openads would use it’s current distribution network and build a stronger community where webmasters could work together and possibly market themselves together (kind of like an exchange marketplace).
It’s not about going against Google, but Openads needs to support and build it’s community to compete with the Google borg.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
[...] To manage your PPC campaings, Google announced a new tool: Google Ad Manager, which will compete with OpenX. The folks at OpenX responded. One site criticized Google Ad Manager. [...]
March 27th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Il 4 aprile ad Ancona un seminario gratuito su OpenX. Interverranno dal Londra i responsabili di OpenX. Tutti i dettagli qui http://www.anso.it/openx/
September 5th, 2008 at 7:21 am
You were right, Google have pushed adsense into it lol
October 27th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
You’re absolutely right! Open X is free. There is no need to pay any commission for using OpenX. In fact, you can even do geo-targeting with OpenX.
November 4th, 2008 at 8:10 am
I think you are spot on with the eggs in one basket comments!
How many times do google change the rules without as much as a whisper.
Any alternative that can be used to gauge against google can only be a good thing in my eyes!
November 18th, 2008 at 10:14 am
The idea to move eggs to different baskets makes sense, and free can be good. Being competitive with Google can be a challenge, but it pushes everyone to be better.