Google Selling DoubleClick's Search Marketing Business

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google(GOOG Quote) plans to get rid of its recently acquired search engine marketing business in an effort to eliminate the possibility of a conflict of interest.

Performics, which Google picked up as part of its $3.2 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, allows Web sites to improve their search engine rankings, which goes against the Internet giant's own mission statement asserting that its search results be "independent of financial incentives."

"It's clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business," wrote Tom Phillips, director of the DoubleClick integration on Google's corporate blog. "Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google's mission and core to the trust we ask from our users." ...