Google is working its way more and more into our business. Time will tell if their expanded offerings to publishers hurts or helps.

Not everybody, of course, is happy with Google’s free ad server.

Now Google comes along attempting to deliver the coup de grace for ad servers: If your website is in one of Google’s key ad categories, they say they’ll give you an ad server for free in exchange for access to your inventory. Will publishers entrust their inventory to Google in order to save ad-serving charges? With the search giant encroaching on so many segments of our business, this is no sure bet, but it’s available for those who dare.

This cannot be good news for commercial ad servers. Accipiter sold itself to Atlas recently, and perhaps others will seek shelter elsewhere.