Okay, calling it a monopoly is a bit of a stretch, but one has to wonder what this acquisition binge of Google‘s is going to end up doing to the competition. DoubleClick and Google were the two largest online ad distributors and they’re one entity now (at a cost of $3.1bn to Google, in case you’ve been in a cave the last few days).

How big a deal is that? AOL’s a good example of the dominance — about 75% of its ad revenue will now involve DoubleClick and Google. That’s got to be a little disconcerting for AOL and others in the same situation.

A bigger concern comes from everyone else who’s in the same (ad placement) game, because Google’s not going to stop with its attempt to corner the online space. Hell, they just announced the deal with Clear Channel today which, coupled with the purchase of dMarc Broadcasting ($1.24bn) last year, shows that they’re crossing over in to other mediums pretty aggressively.

How do you compete with it? How do you even stay relevant? And what do you do when Google uses its might to start doing other things? They paid a ton of cash ($1.65bn) for YouTube and that’s got to be about more than just ad dollars.

Microsoft is whining about the DoubleClick deal being unfair (ironic and a lot of sour grapes, given that they were trying to buy DC as well). AT&T is getting its panties in a bunch as well. They’ve got their IPTV stuff to feel protective about and I suppose there’s a little of “We got broken up, so others should too” going through there minds.

I’m not sure anyone outside of the Googleplex is happy about this, except maybe aQuantive, who’s share price shot up 12 percent after the announcement.

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