GOOGLE [gu-g&l]: "(n) internet search engine". In 2006, Merriam-Webster added, "(trans v) to search for information about". Now Publius adds, "(n) terrifying process of disintermediating an entire industry, usually driven by the eponymous company".

Google may be the largest ad agency in Ireland. That's assuming you use a broad definition for that term and include all revenue taxed here, but the day is coming when you won't have to quibble over definitions.

Google's $10bn in worldwide revenue is almost entirely driven by its ad business.

That business started out in the online world . . . the simple text search-based ads on its own site and others plus its deals with Ebay and MySpace and its ownership of YouTube . . . but this year expanded into mainstream media. More than 50 US newspapers signed up to have their ad space sold by Google in a bid process for advertisers. Discussions with European newspapers are believed to be ongoing, but company executives deny any knowledge of the negotiations.

A system for selling radio ads is also being piloted.

More exotic combinations of converging online and offline media are in the pipeline.

The Wall Street Journal quoted CEO Eric Schmidt last week: "'The long-term fantasy is we walk up to you and you give us, say, $10m and we'll completely allocate it for you across different media and ad types.' All types of ads can be made more effective, for instance by targeting them to consumers more likely to be interested in them, Schmidt said. By tackling that problem, Google expects to expand its share of global advertising sales."

Oh, and it's not just the channel planners, media buyers and ad sales departments that need to worry. Google also is offering a directory of creatives who will write 'optimised' spots.

Is it any wonder that McConnells is moving to Barrow Street, across from the Googleplex?

IRELAND AD SPEND WELL AHEAD OF WORLD TREND

INTERNATIONALmedia buying group Carat said last week that global advertising spend would rise, at current prices, about 6% in 2006 and 5.8% in 2007, buoyed by slow improvements in Japan.

Carat Ireland told Publius that Irish advertising spend was forecast to rise by 9.4% in 2007, well ahead of the global trend. Irish per-capita ad spend is still well below European averages and so still has significant headroom. If the forecast is revised when it's formally completed in January it will if anything go up.

YAHOO ATTEMPTS A COMEBACK

NOT yet, anyway. Project Panama is the code name for Yahoo's great hope for a comeback against Google, unveiled to US advertisers with muted fanfare last week. It promises more targeted search results to try and get near to compete with the "click-through" rates of up to 40% for Google.

But it's unlikely the new Yahoo will be rolled out to Ireland and the UK any time soon. Carragh McKenna, head of search marketing at Dublin agency Ican, says Yahoo hasn't made it easy for Irish advertisers, who are forced to game the system to reach an Irish audience via Yahoo's search methods.

Yahoo doesn't allow for 'geotargeting' . . . making sure you reach the right audience . . . a long-established feature of rival Google that has helped drive its growth. The new system was previewed at a London search marketing conference in June. The new Yahoo may launch this side of the water in February.

One thing's for sure . . . if Yahoo's new bells and whistles don't please McKenna they have bigger problems than Terry Semel's stock options. We'll keep you informed.

SEX, BRIBERY, LYCHEE MARTINIS AND. . . FLOGS EDELMAN

PR scored a win by hiring away Piaras Kelly from Drury Communications. Kelly is not just a top tech PR man but blogs in his spare time.

Hopefully Kelly will keep Edelman Dublin, a parish which . . . full disclosure . . . once counted Publius as a resident, on the straight and narrow.

Edelman, whose chief exec evangelises blogs as a more open, honest way of communications, organised a fake blog for its client, WalMart, which was exposed earlier this year. Bloggers posing as real people who just happened to be on a wacky cross-country joyride visiting Wal-Marts turned out to be PR employees. The deceptive marketing ploy backfired badly.

Wal-Mart's top marketing exec, 'Unruly' Julie Roehm, was ousted after that scandal . . . well perhaps the bigger one was what AdAge dubbed a maelstrom of "sex, bribery and lychee martinis" in which the married Roehm was accused of sleeping with her underling, playing favourites with the company's $580m account over cocktails at Manhattan's uber-cool Nobu restaurant and afterwards draping herself over the Aston Martin belonging to her fave ad agency's CEO.

Wal-Mart's fake blog . . . or 'flog' . . . scandal hasn't seen an Irish equivalent, at least not one we've uncovered. But there's more of it going on than many thought. Last week Sony was outed as having organised a crude flog for its PSP game device.

Keep 'em honest, Piaras.

And stay off the leather seats in the Aston Martin.

BROADCASTING PR JOB OUT TO BID

THE Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has put its PR contract out to tender. The incumbent is Fleishman-Hillard.

NOT LOVING THE TEARS OF A CLOWN

McDONALDS' Irish marketing boss 'Goosey' Lucy Murray complained that there was "no truth" in Publius' 3 December report (under the presumably selfexplanatory caveat 'Rumour Mill') that McDonalds Ireland would finally fall in line with the rest of the McDonaldsverse and move its media business to OMD from Mediaworks. The rest of the global media business was consolidated with OMD in 2004. She was not lovin' it.

"I'd be interested in hearing of your source, " Murray challenged in an email. She then rang us.

Publius expressed amazement that someone would even ask. We don't even like Judy Miller, but we'd share a cell with her if necessary. We asked Murray if she knew of any journalists in Dublin who had revealed their sources to her in the past. She did not say no.

If Publius is wrong, we'll happily take our lumps. But our sources say it's only a matter of time before that change is made. We're sorry if that makes people unhappy, but we'll leave the trans-fatty, obesity-anddiabetes-inducin', Timberlake-careerextendin', crappy-toyincludin' Happy Meal McJournalism ' to others.

Publius won't be bullied off the pitch by a burger-selling clown. And we don't reveal sources. Ever.

Christmas tips, Hanukkah bribes and new year abuse all welcome at rdelevan@tribune. ie