While reading through my daily news sites this morning, I ran across across a fairly surprising article at itWorld Canada:  Google expected the dMarc founders to leave the company:

Huh?  That makes no sense.  Especially when you consider that in the press release announcing the acquisition, dMarc CEO Chad Steelberg said:

As Paul Kedroksky said after the dMarc founders left: "So much for people who thought dMarc was going to be a surprise kicker to Google earnings this year. Ain't gonna happen." because of differences in opinion on the approach the company should take in regard to customer service."

Schmidt's comments contradict the idea that the dMarc guys were going to join the Google team.  So which is it?  Were they expected to help or leave?  We're getting two stories here.

You may be asking why it even matters… or what this is doing on an Internet marketing blog.  That's a great question!

It matters because it is yet another sign of problems at Google.  Something just isn't right in the Google hen house when people who were originally expected to stay with the company are leaving… and Google is changing its story to make the whole thing fit.  And as I've said several times, you have to know what's going on with the companies you depend on if you want to win your game.

To me, problems at Google mean they have taken their eye of the prize (search).  And now they're getting desperate for revenue.  Wall Street wasn't thrilled with they released their last quarter earnings because they'd failed to monetize anything.  99% of the profits (which are admittedly large) are still coming from search and none of their acquisitions have amounted to anything.

When companies get desperate for new revenue streams they start doing stupid things.  Like more stupid purchases (read YouTube).  Or foolish tinkering with established system that are working.  Would you be surprised to see a radical increase in AdWords prices?  I wouldn't be.  Maybe you don't use AdWords so it would seem like that wouldn't matter to you.  What about an increase in sponsored search results?  If more ads get displayed on results pages and decrease the number of focus of organic results.

Even though these are just some examples - which may never come to pass - I know one thing for sure.  Mark my words:  problems at Google WILL AFFECT YOU somehow.

My advice?  Wake up… watch… think about what's going on… read between the lines… and be ready to react.  Because I'm convinced we're on the verge of something stupid from the Googleplex.

- Matt