• Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content or services they desire;

• Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
• Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
• Open networks: Third parties (like Internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network.

As Chris Sacca, head of Google’s wireless initiatives, notes over at Google’s Policy Blog, “all four of these conditions adopted together would promote a spirit of openness and could spur additional forms of competition from Web-based entities, such as software-applications providers, content providers, handset-makers and ISPs. The big winners? Consumers.”

And don’t forget Google, which sure as Shinola will use that “spirit of openness” to make its applications and AdWords even more ubiquitous than they are now. And that’s the subtext here, isn’t it? Because what Google’s attempting to buy here isn’t necessarily a wireless network, but the assurance that it will be open regardless of who wins the FCC auction. And that’s sure to come in handy whenever the company gets around to finally launching the GPhone and whatever 3G home-base station technology that inspired its investment, rumored to be a significant one, in femtocell start-up Ubiquisys.

“We found that we were not as dependent on Google AdWords as some may have thought,” eBay spokesman Hani Durzy told AuctionBytes. “By re-allocating our marketing dollars to our other partners, such as Yahoo, AOL and MSN, we were able to increase traffic and find efficiencies that will enable us to drive more value to our sellers and partners going forward. We are now slowly turning AdWords back on, in a much more limited way than before.”

And for good reason. According to analysis from Hitwise, eBay–which has long been among Google’s largest advertisers–didn’t exactly suffer from the pullout. Total traffic to eBay actually rose during the AdWords boycott. More important, overall activity, including the total value of goods sold, also remained relatively steady. “From our point of view, it was a very successful test. We learned a lot,” Durzy said. “Turning it back on was always our intention.”

Larry and Sergey believed we could develop a better product than the existing online advertising offerings, but we knew that [DoubleClick] could be a fallback if Google’s ad program did not work.”

– Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development at Google, October 1, 2005

Odd how things come full circle, isn’t it? Years ago, before Google AdWords became ubiquitous across the Web, there was DoubleClick, an ad management and reporting company that did big business serving up banner ads (perhaps “GET YOUR FREE X10 VIDEO CAMERA! CLICK HERE!” rings a bell?). So much business, in fact, that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page thought of it as a safety net if Google’s AdWords program were to fail. Ironic then, isn’t it, that the search leader today said it plans to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash.

$3.1 billion. That price seems bit steep for DoubleClick, which fetched just $1.1 billion when it was last sold in 2005 and has since divested some portions of its original business. It’s also quite a premium over the $2 billion Microsoft was reportedly willing to pay for the the online-advertising company. But for Google, paying $3.1 billion to snatch DoubleClick from Microsoft’s waiting arms was likely money well spent. After all, such an acquisition would have given Microsoft an instant and strong position in the market for serving display ads on other companies’ Web sites. Thwarting that was a nice strategic coup for the the search giant–boosting its presence in the area of Internet display advertising and dealing an ugly blow to Microsoft in the process.