Google said Thursday is has ended its high-profile effort to turn the buying and selling of radio advertising into an online auction patterned after its search-engine-advertising market place.
Google will sell its Google Radio Automation business (screen shot above)
The company said in a blog entry it would seek to sell the business, Google Radio Automation, and up to 40 workers could be let go.
The initiative began in 2006 with the company’s acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting, a company with technology automating radio ad placements.
“While we’ve devoted substantial resources to developing these products and learned a lot along the way, we haven’t had the impact we hoped for,” Vice President and Product Manager Susan Wojcicki on the blog. Customers can use the ad system through May 31.
The setback is the second Google has suffered recently as it has ventured beyond its core search advertising market. Google exited its print advertising effort targeting newspapers in January.
The pullback reflects the company’s desire to cut costs and eliminate non-essential projects during the economic downturn.
Nevertheless, Google said it would push ahead with its television advertising business, where “we can measure audience response and help advertisers understand how effective their ads are,” the company said.
