No Surprise: IAA Survey Shows Concern Over Google Market Dominance

Jan 19, 2009 at 10:16am ET by Greg Sterling

AdAge reports on an International Advertising Association (IAA) member survey that shows — there’s little surprise here — concern over Google’s market dominance in search and potentially other areas of online advertising. The survey isn’t yet out but here’s what AdAge had to say about the IAA findings:

The results indicate that advertisers are still concerned about Google’s size and market share, whether that was a naturally incubated fear or one inspired by Microsoft’s lobbying: 65% said there is one dominant player in the online ad market and that there are “limited choices and price options for online advertisers”; 85% said it’s important a strong competitor to Google emerges in the online advertising market.

The article also points out that the survey of 100 IAA members was partly funded by Microsoft. However, it would be incorrect to suggest that Microsoft influenced the results through its partial funding of the survey.

While survey questions can certain be “leading” (I don’t have access to the survey instrument) the questions and methodology were reportedly independent of Microsoft. I believe and don’t question that. (However Microsoft can certainly point to and cite the survey in its arguments against Google.)

In addition, the results are nothing startling or new. There have been similar surveys in the past where concerns over a single dominant search provider have been expressed by marketers and agencies.

The IAA was also an opponent of the defunct Google-Yahoo paid search deal that was abandoned by Google in response to potential anti-trust action by the US Justice Department against the search engine.

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and writes a personal blog Screenwerk, examining the broader world of media and advertising. He also posts at a Local Mobile Search, which is focused on the mobile Internet.

See more articles by Greg Sterling >

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