Google Affiliate Network Launched

I’m very excited to have discovered that Google has launched their own Affiliate Network.
The actual company behind the newly added firepower Google now possess is known as DoubleClick Perfomics. Google acquired the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate network in March 2008.

As of now it’s a bit unclear as to what type of merchants they accept into their program or as to what the exact criteria is for getting accepted, but since everything still operates on the Doubleclick platform I think it would be untouched for as of now and they still operate like they always have.

Affiliate, you can sign up to the Google Affiliate Network, the full article with information can be found here:
http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/index.html

My thoughts on this dwell in the area of competition.
Will Google crush all other existing Affiliate Networks with their innovative ways, or will this new addition to Google just fade into the background and go unnoticed?

Regards,
Reinhardt