Google's online ad network DoubleClick suffers outage

Google Inc's DoubleClick online advertisement service suffered an outage affecting many websites around the world, according to a report on tech blog The Next Web. Ads on several websites using DoubleClick were blank or entire websites failed to load, starting at around 9:40 a.m. ET (1440 GMT), the report said.

Sites affected by the outage include the Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com and BBC.com. Gannett Co Inc, publisher of USA Today, tweeted: "Enjoy your ad-free experience on http://usatoday.com right now, brought to you by Google!" Founded in 1996, DoubleClick runs a digital marketplace that connects ad agencies, marketers and website publishers.

Google acquired DoubleClick in 2007. CNBC reported Google as saying it was aware of the problem and was working to resolve it. Reuters was unable to reach Google and DoubleClick representatives for comment.