Hacker News Reader

Comment by ailideex | Hacker News Reader

> I don’t see any mention in this article of what seems like the most obvious way to split up Google, separating their search and ad businesses.

What would be the revenue model for their search then?

View on HN

The ad business would pay the search business for ad placement. The search business would also be free to auction ad space to other providers.

> The search business would also be free to auction ad space to other providers.

Doesn't that make them an ad business?

I agree, to me it seems like that really does not change anything except it mandates one more middle man.

Yep, it just makes what likely already operates as an "internal" customer an "external" one. Not really sure how it helps with competition?

That’s exactly the point, to make that internal customer external, and make any special access or APIs they have available to competitors on an equal footing.

It makes them like the New York Times, which sells ad real estate. It's a much different business.

Is that not what google's ad business does already? Not sure where the difference is actually. Basically the request seems to be:

Pre Split:

  - Company A
    - provides: search
    - sells: ad space

Post Split:

  - Company A
    - provides: search
    - sells: ad space
  - Company B
    - (re-)sells: ad space

Seems like this solves nothing and can be repeated ad infinitum. There are many companies which already does what Company B does - what exactly will this fix?

Here’s a question that may clarify: who runs the ad auction?

If post-split that’s company B, I’d argue that is a genuinely new structure with some different properties.

Company A would still have an ads team to manage the integration, but they would explicitly outsource ad selection to (potentially) multiple partner companies.

>The ad business would pay the search business for ad placement. The search business would also be free to auction ad space to other providers.

What you're describing is exactly what Google ads are today.

> What would be the revenue model for their search then?

I read OP's proposal as separating Google search business (search + search ads) from its third-party ad business (e.g. AdSense).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com