In light of the major developments in the world of online advertising and marketing that occurred when Google announced it’s acquisition of DoubleClick.

Shawn Collins hit on some important points in his reflection on the acquisition:

Will the Performics brand stay in tact? Will Google revolutionize the way affiliate networks operate and the technology they use? Will Performics shift towards Javascript only affiliate creative like Google AdSense (let us not forget LMI and the backlash)?

Combine that with some of the assertions that Fred Wilson made in his post about the DoubleGoo deal…

Yesterday’s announcement of Google’s (GOOG) $3.1bn acquisition of Doubleclick says to me that the banner is back, big time. And here’s why. There is infinite demand for search/CPC inventory at a price. Search/CPC is bought on a measured ROI basis. If you know what a click is worth to you, you’ll pay up the that price for as many as you can get. But beyond that, you can’t buy more.

Many marketers have reached the point that they can’t easily buy more search. It’s getting harder. Keyword markets are becoming efficient and supply and demand are coming into balance. Of course, that alone doesn’t mean that all the other money will move into banners. Banners also need to produce measured returns.

But, banners carry branding value that text ads don’t. The return on investment measure is not as cold and hard with banners. And the big branded advertisers that are leaving TV and print in search of better performance on the internet want to be able to brand with their ads. And they want to control where those ads are run. They’ll pay more for those two features.

So, the general questions seem to revolve around technology (javascript) and implementation.  Fred is raising the issue that the price/result curve in search has reached its natural plateau for many advertisers, so they are looking for a balance between the performance and branding avenues which banners and visual inventory can provide.

However, is this what Google is thinking in the acquisition of DoubleClick?  I can see a new platform of banner ads based on javascript (LMI all over again!).  But, are banners really “coming back” into the mainstream of online advertising at the behest of Google reacting to market forces?

I think it’s inevitable that search CPC and visual banners will converge into one platform in the (near?) future. However, I’m not sure that is what Google is up to in this acquisition, and banners never went away in the first place.