Google’s Loss Is Murdoch’s Gain - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

More Google gloom...

The stock market may be fretting over Google’s disappointing earnings, but somewhere Rupert Murdoch is smiling.

One of the weaknesses that Google’s management highlighted in its conference call was advertising on social networks. The company said its traffic acquisition cost, the money it pays to sites on which it places ads, rose in the fourth quarter because of required minimum payments it must make to certain sites.

“We have found that social networking inventory is not monetizing as well as we would like,” said George Reyes, Google’s chief financial officer, implying that the sites on which the minimum payments are due were social networks.

Google’s Loss Is Murdoch’s Gain - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog