Coinciding with Google closing the acquisition of rarely used ad network DoubleClick, today they announced the launch of a new Ad Manager service.

Google Ad Manager allows you to serve, rotate and target ads from AdSense, other ad networks and your own ads. It’s basically a cut down version of what Double Click offers larger publishers, giving you:

• Inventory management
• Yield optimization
• Ad targeting
• Trafficking, ad delivery, and order booking
• Creatives and rich media management
• Reporting
• User interface navigation
• Account administration

Unfortunately, I only have Google’s word for that, as it’s invite only at the moment. And the fact that the Ad Manager home page lists several “success stories” from apparently happy publishers is a bit odd too. It’s not even in public beta yet.

I do think that this will probably turn out to be a great solution for many bloggers (particularly those with 2 or more sites), but for now I’m going to stick with OpenAds (now OpenX) for the time being. I just don’t like the idea of putting all my eggs in one Google-shaped basket.