Microsoft and Google kick off convergence between internet and mass media

What promises to be the 21st century titan's fight over online media between Microsoft and Google has hardly begun, and already it's spilled over to the airwaves.

Last Thursday Microsoft showed a demo with a new technology enabling viewers of online video to click on objects they see on the screen, taking them immediately to ads for relevant products. The guys in Redmond also announced heavy investments in their newly formed adCenter Incubation Lab, which will concentrate Microsoft's research into advanced advertising technologies.


And an hour ago Google finally gave us an idea about the way they're going to spend all those billions in cash, by announcing the acquisition of radio advertising company dMarc Broadcasting.

dMarc connects advertisers to radio stations through an automated platform. Google wants to integrate this technology into their AdWords programme, which basically does the same for websites. In the near future Google's AdWord clients will be able to buy both online and radio advertising from one single source.

This is not just a skirmish any more. Google will overpay up to $1.2 billion for dMarc, a company that was formed as recent as 2004, in a deal worth $29 million. And this is just the beginning...