Google Ordered to Rewire Ad Exchange Amid Antitrust Concerns
A federal court has ordered Google to rewire its ad exchange (AdX) to connect with other companies, and a recent blog post from PubMatic CEO Rajeev Goel details what this means for publishers and advertisers. According to Goel, the court's order requires Google to provide real-time AdX bids through Prebid and rival publisher ad servers, and to separate access to AdX demand from its own ad server.
The Post notes that Prebid is an open-source standard that provides a common connection across technologies, which could make comparing bids and changing technology easier for publishers. However, Goel emphasizes that having a connection does not necessarily create meaningful choice for publishers and advertisers.
To achieve meaningful choice, the connection must work on comparable terms, bids must arrive in time to compete, information must be usable, and publishers must be able to change technology providers without ending up worse off. These conditions are crucial because they map onto specific technical failure modes that the industry has already lived through.