On the day the Google Doubleclick deal goes ahead, we see the launch of Google Ad Manager. Their free ad management tool.

It is unclear at this time if the Google tool will be the new Doubleclick, but the business model approach (buy the company, kill the competition by making it free) has already been demonstrated with acquisitions like Urchin (now Google Analytics). Howeverm we haven't seen such a model on such a big purchase ($3.1 billlion!)

Looking at the sign up page today you can see they aren't actually offering it to everybody yet, you have to be invited or ask to be invited. Looking at the information they wish to have, it seems to be a massive lead generation tool to pick up those smaller sites and networks they don't already have. Note the questions about your site taking advertising from AdSense or other networks.

If we can take the Chinwag discussion lists as any form of benchmark, we can see there is a genuine demand for low cost/free adserving, so the Google opportunity will be welcomed.

The Google/Doubleclick deal has wider implications for the industry which won't be discussed here, but you have to take your hat off to Google. The speed of integration for new products and acquisitions is something to behold, and something Yahoo would do well to emulate.