Thanks to Marketing Pilgrim and writing a lot of press releases lately, I'm in the newswriting mode! I first learned this news on Twitter, from Danny Sullivan. Shoemoney said he called it first (a month ago) and Danny Sullivan trumped that saying he and others predicted it a year ago. Oh yeah, and eBay moved their affiliate network in-house because Shoemoney advised them to.
Ah, Twitter. It makes me feel so “in the know.” These days I get news from Twitter as much as from my blog feeds. Egos flare up, people kiss up, rant, and sometimes act childish but I still love it after all this time (and for some ego stroking of my own – I just checked and I've been on Twitter for a full year now). But, back to the story.
It's great that Google sees the conflict of interest with offering SEO and SEM services when they're the biggest search engine. I'm disappointed that they are not selling all of Performics. They're hanging on to the affiliate marketing piece.
Has Google ever sold off part of their acquisitions? This is the first I remember. Who will buy it? What is going through Commission Junction's mind? Google offers a limited amount of affiliate links for advertisers now, but the reporting is terrible and I haven't seen a single conversion.
However, Performics is the third largest affiliate network and packs some well know brands like AOL, LL Bean, and Motorola. Having their own affiliate network gives Google some real leverage in the market…and more conflicts of interest.
Egos on Twitter? Never! 🙂