If approved, the acquisition of AdMob would provide Google with a key set of technologies to expand its advertising business beyond search-related text ads that make up the bulk of revenue. "Google could have built this itself, but this gives them a head start," says mobile analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. "It will thrust Google into the forefront of mobile display ads." Google has already pushed into the wireless market by backing the development of Android, an operating system used in smartphones such as Motorola's new Droid, carried by Verizon Wireless. Google's third-largest acquisition to date, AdMob would give its new owner the ability to serve display ads, the pictorial banners that are the chief revenue source for most Web sites, to cell phones and other mobile devices. Google last June introduced a program called AdSense for Mobile in a bid to land display ads on mobile phones, akin to its AdSense program, which places ads on conventional Web sites. But AdMob has richer advertising formats, especially ads inside mobile apps. These mini-programs have become enormously popular, and developers have concocted more than 100,000 of them for the iPhone.
