To say, what’s the point – Google and Overture are the biggest – is naive. If you actually look at the percentage share of global advertising revenue which Google has acquired in a few short years you’ll see that it’s a minute fraction and a very targeted niche area of the market. Where is tv, radio, print, film, banner advertising, etc etc?

Propriety services can’t scale because they require business infrastructure, propriety applications can scale as they leverage the market expertise of businesses which have been operating in their domain and excelling at providing those specialist services to customers for years. To assume that a new Kid on the block, no matter how lyrical his rapping might be, could take on industry heavyweights at their own game is short sighted at best.