'Open Source Advertising', Anyone?

The chief executives of Publicis, the advertising conglomerate, and Google, the world's biggest Internet search company, said Tuesday that they would join forces to develop an approach to digital advertising that was both creative and technologically savvy, a combination they said was lacking in the business world today.

Neither Maurice Lévy of Publicis nor Eric Schmidt of Google, meeting with the news media at Publicis's headquarters here, would put a value on their partnership, which is not exclusive. But they asserted that the collaboration gave them a "first-mover advantage" in combining the programming smarts of a search engine with the inspiration found inside ad agencies.

The resulting tools and business intelligence would not necessarily be proprietary to the two companies, but could help propel the growth of the entire digital advertising industry, they said.

"It is possible that what emerges could drive the development of 'open source advertising,' " Schmidt said, if the tools are made widely available. Google, which makes its money by placing ads on particular Web sites for other companies, promotes the use of "open" and common technical standards.

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