Startup Chatter by Donna Bogatin

The Advertising Research Foundation Audience Measurement 3.0 conference doesn’t start until tomorrow, but Google is already reaping the PR benefits of its ”Platinum” sponsorship funding : The New York Times is whetting the ad world’s appetite for what the “Internet search giant has up its sleeve,“ a service that may aim to compete with comScore and Nielsen online measurement products.

Nielsen and comScore are long time heavy supporters of the ARF, but Google has been enjoying unusual, dedicated promotion as the lead sponsor for the current show. The ARF email campaigns have long teased breaking Google TV Ads news, with a solo Google “keynote” showcase promising real, new data on a “game changing” Google initiative. The “Google TV Ads Goes Live” session Wednesday morning however, presents as but the latest Google product spiel for its newest unsuccessful diversification foray.

Tuesday afternoon, “Platinum” sponsor Google has another dedicated “Special Google Session,” booked at the ARF conference to feature a Google data analysis demo by a Google Business Product Manager, perhaps the prospective comScore/Nielsen “game changer.”

Google was nowhere to be found today at the Personal Democracy Forum, however, despite being the conference’s key (note) sponsor last year. Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, showed their political support for how “technology is changing politics,” by underwriting the annual confab.

Why not Google? I asked Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum. “It’s really sad Google is not here,” Rasiej told me.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt delivered the Personal Democracy Forum keynote last year, extolling the virtues of open “conversation,” while at the same time refusing to take questions from the media during an open, public Q & A session.

Has the chief Googler realized the hypocrisy of Google’s communications ways? Apparently not: Google’s absence from the Personal Democracy Forum is attributed to prosaic budget issues–Google was unable to secure sponsorship clearance in a timely manner.

Rasiej told me he is confident Google will be back next year. Google may very well be waiting for the next big election cycle, however, hoping big political AdWords budgets will (theoretically) be ripe for the picking.