(3 April 2008 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Google has announced that it will sell search marketing and optimisation firm Performics, which it acquired as part of DoubleClick.

The decision comes three weeks after Google's $3.2 billion takeover of online ad service DoubleClick. The sale will enable Google to preserve the trust of its users, writes DoubleClick Integration director Tom Phillips.

"It's clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google's mission," Phillips wrote in official blog on Google's website.

Phillips also has written that Google does not have a buyer for Performics yet, but they have received preliminary interest from a number of current partners.