Google officially acquires AdMob

Google said mobile advertising is becoming a larger part of its clients’ and partners’ strategies, and consequent to this acquisition, “it’s now a central part of our own business.” Google views mobile search central to this model, as it is one of the key people find and access information on their mobile devices, similar to their search on desktops. With the proliferation of smart phones mobile search volume has increased manifold. Google said that over the past two years, its own mobile search volumes have witnessed over fivefold growth at an accelerated pace, and during the first three months of 2010, people with smartphones with “full” WebKit browsers (such as the iPhones, Android devices and Palm Pre) searched 62 percent more than they did in the previous three months.

Officially welcoming the AdMob team to Google, the company said that it will now begin the process of bringing products and teams together in the best possible way.

AdMob was one of the first companies to serve ads inside mobile applications on the Android and iPhone platforms. The company has developed a host of engaging and creative ad units for Android and iPhone apps, such as  interactive video ad units and expandable rich media ads. Google has also been developing new features for in-app ads, having announced just last week its “click-to-call” ad formats that will be available to developers who run AdSense in their mobile apps.  Click-to-call is said to be one of the more popular. The format allows advertisers to include a local or natioanl phone number in the ad text, which users can then click to reach the business directly via phone. This is specially useful, Google says, for localized businesses such as restaurants, and allows advertisers to connect directly to interested customers.

Other formats for mobile advertising include mobile websites that are accessed through the mobile's bowser, mobile apps generally available though Apple’s App Store, the Android Marketplace, and mobile display and text ads. This is where AdMob has been “a real pioneer”  Google said, and has built a successful business by working with thousands of advertisers, publishers and developers.