The Ad Planner interface, announced on a Google blog, consists of tools that include criterion labeled as: "Defined Audience," which allows searches based on country and language; "Demographics," which searches gender, age, education and household income; and "Online Behavior," which identifies specific sites that an advertiser audience is likely to visit. Data is derived from 40 countries.

Based on returned results, statistics are aggregated that include unique visitors and page views. Advertisers can use the information to conduct more research or create media plans. Site data displayed in Ad Planner is updated regularly, covers a 30-day period and information from more than 40 countries, the company said.

Currently, users cannot buy ad placement. Advertisers won't be able to contact publishers, but Google said users can export media plans to other media planning and buying tools, such as DoubleClick MediaVisor. In addition, sites whose traffic doesn't hit unidentified minimum thresholds are not included in Ad Planner.

Ad Planner's data is extracted not only from Google search data, but also from its external consumer panel.

Google Analytics data is also used in Ad Planner and is gathered from Web site owners who have opted to share their data anonymously. Google Analytics data is combined with other data sources to calibrate macro-level insights into Web site traffic patterns, site visitation across geographies and related Web sites and searches.