Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is planning to launch a new feature called Flow Visualizations. This feature was announced by Google SVP of ads Susan Wojcicki at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. This feature will be launched for all Google Analytics users today.

Susan Wojcicki, the SVP of product development at Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) explained why Google wouldn’t build similar services to companies they could just buy. “It’s hard to assemble a team and organize as quickly as you want in these situations,” said Wojcicki in an interview at the Dive Into Mobile conference. “Finding the right people, interviewing them and hiring them takes time. Companies are willing to pay a premium to be in the market right now.” Wojcicki refused to talk about Groupon directly, but she did talk about Google’s competitive bid for AdMob. “You’re buying people with expertise and learning about new markets.” she added. [NYT]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is being investigated by the European Union for discriminating against competing services in their search results. The EU is looking into whether Google AdSense contracts also prevent publishers from making deals to place ads from other services on their websites. And the EU is also looking into whether Google limits advertisers moving key search terms from AdWords to another service.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been given the greenlight by the FTC to acquire AdMob, the company founded by Omar Hamoui. AdMob is a mobile advertising company that provides a platform and advertising inventory for iPhone and Android applications. “Throughout the FTC’s review process, it’s been clear that mobile advertising is growing rapidly. As mobile phone usage increases, growth in mobile advertising is only going to accelerate. This benefits mobile developers and publishers who will get better advertising solutions, marketers who will find new ways to reach consumers, and users who will get better ads and more free content,” stated Google VP of Product Management Susan Wojcicki. Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless most likely helped Google’s case. [Google Blog]

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is buying one of the biggest mobile phone advertising companies for $750 million in stock. AdMob started in December 2006 and is based in San Mateo, California. AdMob powers a lot of the advertising that shows up in iPhone and Android applications.

“Mobile advertising has enormous potential as a marketing medium and while this industry is still in the early stages of development, AdMob has already made exceptional progress in a very short time,” stated Google VP of Product Management Susan Wojcicki. “AdMob is the quintessential Silicon Valley startup – generating impressive year on year revenue growth – and we’re excited to welcome this talented team to Google.”

“I think people underestimate how important ads have been to funding the development of innovative content on the Internet. Our goal all along at AdMob has been to make it possible for developers and publishers to bring their products and ideas to mobile with the same business model,” stated AdMob founder Omar Hamoui.

The acquisition is subject to closing conditions, but both parties have agreed to the transaction.

On May 31, Google will be officially ending their radio advertising service.  Google was working closely with Chad and Ryan Steelberg, who  had developed technology to transmit and schedule radio advertisements over the last couple of years.  But now the service will be shutting down on May 31.

One of the problems was the business model itself.  The radio stations refused to give Google airtime for advertising rates that were much lower than what they were offering.  Even though Google runs about 30% of the online advertising market, they have been unable to break into traditional mediums.  Their TV, print, and radio advertising attempts have not done very well.  About 97% of Google’s revenue in 2008 was from online advertising.  Google’s 2008 revenue was about $22 billion.

David Friedberg, a former executive at Google discovered dMarc Broadcasting Inc., a three year old company that transmitted radio ads automatically.  Google bought them out for $102 million and offered an additional $1.1 billion based on airtime and revenue produced through the acquisition.

Around February 2007, Google had told the Steelbergs that the arrangement for radio ads has not been working out.  Both brothers quit the company shortly after.  Shortly after that Google had to negotiate advertising airtime with Clear Channel.  The whole process took one year and the final agreement was that Google would have to pay Clear Channel for a certain amount of spots every quarter regardless of whether they actually sold or not.

Google decided to end the radio ad program in January but kept it confidential until now.  Susan Wojcicki, sister-in-law of Sergey Brin and VP of Google’s ad products played a vital role in the project.  Google’s first office ever was in Susan’s garage.

[via WSJ]