Google announced that it will roll out some new tools for DoubleClick Ad Exchange buyers. These features, the company says, will help buyers buy quality inventory and check their campaigns.

The DoubleClick Ad Exchange was launched in September as a real-time marketplace where online publishers and ad networks/agencies can buy and sell ad space for prices set in a real-time auction.

One new feature is called "Site Packs" which the company describes as "manually crafted collections of like sites based on DoubleClick Ad Planner and internal classifications, vetted for quality."

Google is also making changes to its Real-time Bidder. "The biggest change here is for Ad Exchange clients who work with DSPs," says DoubleClick Ad Exchange Product Manager, Scott Spencer in an interview with AdExchanger.com (reposted to Google's DoubleClick Advertiser Blog). "Historically, Ad Exchange buyers were hidden from publishers behind their DSP. By introducing a way to segment out each individual client's ad calls, inventory can be sent exclusively to an Ad Exchange buyer even when that buyer uses a DSP. It increases transparency for publishers and potentially give buyers more access to the highest quality inventory, like 'exclusive ad slots' – high quality inventory offered to only a few, select buyers as determined by the publisher."

Google will also roll out a beta of a feature called "Data Transfer", which is a report of all transactions bought/sold by clients on the Ad Exchange.

Rumors surfaced recently that Google was buying Like.com. Those rumors have now been confirmed, as Like.com has announced the news on their site. Founder and CEO Munjal Shah writes:

Since 2006, Like.com has been moving the frontiers of eCommerce forward one steap at a time. We were the first to bring visual search to shopping, the first to build an automated cross-matching system for clothing, and more. We didn't stop there, and don't have plans to stop now. We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharger our passion. This is something we are truly excited about.

Along the way we built a team that was not just hard working but obsessed with the mission at hand. We are so very proud of this team, and they deserve all the credit for how far we have come. In addition, there are many folks outside the company who have been pivotal to our success. All the Like.com alumni are incredible folks who left our little company better than they found it. Our investors were patient, insightful, and supportive of our plans to build a bigger platform. Our merchant partners were cutting edge and innovative, and in many cases they were willing to try new approaches and new technologies to better the user experience.

The company says it has developed technology that lets it understand what terms like "red high-heeled pumps" or "floral patterned sleeveless dress" mean, and has created algorithms to understand whether or not items will complement or clash with one another. The company also operates personalized shopping site Covet.com, user-generated fashion site Weardrobe.com, and Couturious.com, which it says "pushes the envelope on Rich Internet Architectures."

Google is obviously impressed with the technology behind Like.com, and it will be interesting to see what they do with it.

Financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed. TechCrunch says its heard that the price was over $100 million.