list of acquisitions by Google

This is a list of acquisitions by Google. Each acquisition is for the respective company in its entirety, unless otherwise specified. The acquisition date listed is the date of the agreement between Google and the subject of the acquisition. The value of each acquisition is listed in US dollars because Google is headquartered in the United States. If the value of an acquisition is not listed, then it is undisclosed. If the Google service that is derived from the acquired company is known, then it is also listed. Google's largest acquisition as of March 2008 is the purchase of DoubleClick, an online advertisingcompany, for US$3.1 billion. Because of the size of the acquisition, United States antitrustregulators took nearly a year to investigate the deal and clear it for approval. The majority of the companies acquired by Google are based in the United States, and in turn, a large percentage of these companies are based in or around the San Francisco Bay Area. A total of 51 companies have been acquired as of March 2008.

Acquisition date	Company	Business	Country	Value (USD)	Derived services	References
12 February 2001	Deja	Usenet	USA		Google Groups	[1]
20 September 2001	Outride	Web search engine	USA		Google Personalized Search	[2]
February 2003	Pyra Labs	Weblog software	USA		Blogger	[3]
April 2003	Neotonic Software	Customer relationship management	USA		Google Groups,Gmail	[4]
April 2003	Applied Semantics	Online advertising	USA	$102,000,000	AdSense, AdWords	[5]
30 September 2003	Kaltix	Web search engine	USA		iGoogle	[6]
October 2003	Sprinks(a division of Primedia)	Online advertising	USA		AdSense, AdWords	[7]
October 2003	Genius Labs	Blogging	USA		Blogger	[8]
10 May 2004	Ignite Logic	HTML editor	USA		Google Page Creator	[9]
23 June 2004	BaiduA	Chinese languagesearch engine	CHN	$5,000,000		[10]
13 July 2004	Picasa	Image organizer	USA		Picasa, Blogger	[11]
September 2004	ZipDash	Traffic analysis	USA		Google Ride Finder	[12]
October 2004	Where2	Map analysis	USA		Google Maps	[13]
27 October 2004	Keyhole, Inc	Map analysis	USA		Google Maps,Google Earth	[14]
28 March 2005	Urchin Software Corporation	Web analytics	USA		Google Analytics	[15]
12 May 2005	Dodgeball	Social networking service	USA		Google Mobile,Google SMS	[16]
July 2005	Reqwireless	Mobile browser	CAN		Google Mobile	[17]
7 July 2005	Current Communications Group	Broadband internet access	USA	$100,000,000	Internet backbone	[18]
17 August 2005	Android	Mobile software	USA		Google Mobile,Google SMS	[19]
November 2005	Skia	Graphics software	USA		Picasa	[20]
17 November 2005	Akwan Information Technologies	Search Engines	BRA		Internet backbone	[21]
20 December 2005	AOLB	Broadband internet access	USA	$1,000,000,000		[22]
27 December 2005	Phatbits	Widget engine	USA		Google Desktop	[23]
31 December 2005	allPAY GmbH	Mobile software	GER		Google Mobile	[24]
31 December 2005	bruNET GmbH	Mobile software	GER		Google Mobile	[24]
17 January 2006	dMarc Broadcasting	Advertising	USA	$102,000,000	AdSense	[25]
14 February 2006	Measure Map	Weblog software	USA		Google Analytics	[26]
9 March 2006	Upstartle	Word processor	USA		Google Documents	[27]
14 March 2006	@Last Software	3D modeling software	USA		Google Sketchup	[28]
9 April 2006	Orion	Web search engine	AUS		Google Search	[29]
1 June 2006	2Web Technologies	Online spreadsheets	USA		Google Spreadsheet	[30][31]
15 August 2006	Neven Vision	Computer vision	USA		Google Maps	[32]
9 October 2006	YouTube	Video sharing	USA	$1,650,000,000	Google Video	[33][34]
31 October 2006	JotSpot	Web application	USA		Google Sites	[35]
18 December 2006	Endoxon	Mapping	CHE	$28,000,000	Google Maps	[36]
4 January 2007	XunleiC	File sharing	CHN	$5,000,000		[37]
16 February 2007	Adscape	In-game advertising	USA	$23,000,000	AdSense	[38]
16 March 2007	Trendalyzer	Statistical software	SWE		Google Analytics	[39]
17 April 2007	Tonic Systems	Presentation program	USA		Google Documents	[40]
19 April 2007	Marratech	Videoconferencing	SWE		Google Talk	[41]
13 April 2007	DoubleClick	Online advertising	USA	$3,100,000,000	AdSense	[42][43][44]
11 May 2007	GreenBorder	Computer security	USA		Internal use	[45]
1 June 2007	Panoramio	Photo sharing	ESP		Blogger Maps	[46]
3 June 2007	FeedBurner	Web feed	USA	$100,000,000	Google Reader	[47]
5 June 2007	PeakStream	Parallel processing	USA		Server (computing)	[48]
19 June 2007	Zenter	Presentation program	USA		Google Documents	[49]
2 July 2007	GrandCentral	Voice over Internet Protocol	USA	$45,000,000	Google Mobile	[50]
20 July 2007	Image America	Aerial photography	USA		Google Maps	[51]
9 July 2007	Postini	Communications security	USA	$625,000,000	Gmail	[52]
27 September 2007	Zingku	Social network service	USA		Google Mobile	[53]
9 October 2007	Jaiku	Micro-blogging	FIN		Google Mobile	[54]

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Google Chrome Will Support Add-Ons, User Scripts [Google Chrome]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/397471359/google-chrome-will-support-add+ons-user-scripts

InformationWeek confirms that Google Chrome will have add-ons, a move that could have an enormous impact on Chrome's viability among the power users and early adopters in the Firefox camp. In addition to regular extensions, Chrome will also support scripts à la Greasemonkey:

"There's two different kinds of add-ons," [Google engineer Ojan] Vafai said. "The Firefox things extend your browser, so to speak, and then there are user scripts. We intend to do both of those in Google Chrome." Greasemonkey's founder, Aaron Boodman, actually works on the Google Chrome team.

Additionally, Vafai says Google will work to ensure its extensions are more stable than Firefox, where "there are problems with instability." That statement may sound like slap in the face to Mozilla, but Chrome will likely be a boon no matter which of two browsers you prefer.

Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, joining the panel along with Vafai and Microsoft Internet Explorer platform architect Chris Wilson, said that Mozilla was looking at how Google treated tabs as a potential way to improve stability when dealing with browser add-ons. "There are good process-isolation tricks that Chrome does that we're looking into, so we're simply going to look at better isolation techniques for security and integrity," he said.

The upshot: No matter which browser you choose in the end, Chrome and Firefox will push each other into innovative, fast, and hopefully more stable territories with each release.

Web 2.0: Google Chrome To Support Add-Ons [InformationWeek via Gizmodo]

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Virtual World Marketing That Works: My Top 3 Tips

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/397267453/

So last year, most people decided that marketing real products in virtual worlds like Second Life doesn’t work. Since then, however, I’ve come across some avatar-driven advertising campaigns with very impressive numbers. In Gaia Online, for example, users grabbed over a million virtual copies of a Toyota Scion; in Second Life, a promotion for the IMAX screening of the latest “Harry Potter” movie was credited for boosting the movie’s ticket sales online.

Why do campaigns like these work where others have failed? I discussed that at a presentation I gave at the Web 2.0 Expo this week in New York. Here are my main reasons, packaged into three tips for future marketers:

Worlds With User-Created Content Are Good Marketing Venues:
Habbo Hotel from Finland-based Sulake Corp. reports strong results from its marketing of real-world products, primarily those associated with pop stars and TV/movies. Jeremy Monroe, Sulake’s North American director of marketing and business development, attributes this success to Habbo’s open-ended, creative game play. "At its core, Habbo is about social interaction, having fun building a world for self-expression and creative experiences,” Monroe told me. “Products…that exemplify these traits or can add to the existing sandbox of user-generated content game play are a great start." (While Second Life is entirely user-created, its most notoriously unsuccessful marketing campaigns failed to leverage this aspect of the culture.)

Market to the Web 2.0 Ecology Around The Virtual World:
Because virtual worlds are by their very nature dynamic and synchronous, a tremendous amount of activity related to them actually takes place elsewhere, in the Web 2.0 content-sharing ecology — screenshots sent to Flickr, machinima uploaded to YouTube, blogs and conferencing systems where users discuss their latest experiences. In Gaia Online, for instance, 30 percent of user activity occurs in the site’s messaging boards compared with 10 percent in the virtual world itself. To capitalize on this for the Scion campaign, Gaia VP Joe Hyrkin told me, they offered Scion-branded “driver’s licenses” that Gaia users could add to their forum signatures.

Serve Existing Community Needs:
With Second Life, new users enter a strange, overwhelming world without many objects in their inventory, and are usually too intimidated to talk with the locals. To serve this need, the agency behind a promotion for IMAX created “buzz agent” avatars who cheerfully engaged “noobs” in Second Life’s Welcome Area, offering them tips on using the interface — all while handing out “Harry Potter” memorabilia and directing them to IMAX’s retail site.

Of course, while these success stories might encourage marketers to take a second look at Second Life and other virtual worlds, the metrics of success still haven’t been agreed upon. That’s why many are eagerly awaiting a Forrester Research report that will try to define and standardize virtual marketing ROI. So am I. Stay tuned.

Disclosure: I gave a single paid speaking appearance at Gaia Online about my Second Life book.

Image: Gaiaonline.com

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Joost Now Offers Online TV with Only a Browser [Joost]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/396314077/joost-now-offers-online-tv-with-only-a-browser

Joost, the web-based provider of on-demand and live television, launched a browser-based version of its offerings this morning. While users of the service's Mac and Windows software can still get at their channels, Joost's new model allows anyone with Flash capabilities, and a temporarily-required browser IE or Firefox plug-in, to get at the good stuff. Joost is expected to go no-plugin-required next month—nice for those on Linux or non-standard browsers—but for now, it's a bit more hassle-free to watch live or canned television at work, or show a friend that old sitcom episode you were referring to. Joost is a free service; requires a sign-up and (for the moment) browser plug-in.

Joost [via TechCrunch]

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Five Best BitTorrent Applications [Hive Five]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/396340609/five-best-bittorrent-applications

The days of peer-to-peer file sharing tools ushered into popularity by the original Napster are over and done, and today, BitTorrent reigns supreme. It took some time for BitTorrent to gain mainstream popularity, but now that it has, there are a surplus of BitTorrent clients available vying for your downloads. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite BitTorrent applications, and now we're back with the five most popular choices. Keep reading for a breakdown of the top five and to pick the BitTorrent client you count on. Photo by djxspike.

Before We Get Started

By now BitTorrent is a common and popular file-sharing protocol, so chances are you all know how it works. If you don't, check out our beginner's guide to BitTorrent. If that's too elementary for you, our intermediate guide might be more your speed.

uTorrent (Windows)

uTorrent's first public release came three years ago today, having been developed with one goal in mind: To create a lightweight, efficient BitTorrent client. Once a popular independently developed app, uTorrent is now owned and operated by BitTorrent the company (not to be confused with the protocol). Despite a continued emphasis on keeping the application small, fast, and light, uTorrent is now loaded with features, including a personal fa! vorite, built-in remote control.

Deluge (All Platforms)

Deluge is a lightweight, cross-platform BitTorrent client. The look and feel of Deluge is very reminiscent of uTorrent, and as much as uTorrent has dragged their heels on porting to any platform other than Windows, Deluge is poised to really take hold as a uTorrent-for-the-rest-of-us. The app is a little over a year old, and in that time it's already built an impressive, feature-rich client. Another feather in Deluge's cap is that it supports a plug-in architecture, and though all plug-ins are currently included in the app, the extensibility it offers could mean a lot to Deluge as it continues to grow.

Transmission (Mac OS X/*nix)

Transmission is a free, open-source BitTorrent client with big download bars and an increasingly impressive feature set. Like uTorrent and Deluge, Transmission aims to remain as light on system resources as possible while still offering every feature most users could want or need. The application boasts similar features to most of the rest, like download scheduling and remote control, but also has nice integration with OS X, including Dock and Growl notifications and built-in Quick Look.

rTorrent (*nix)

rTorrent is a text-based BitTorrent client that runs on Linux and Unix-like systems. In contrast to the other options, rTorrent is about as spartan as you can get on features and interface. Most fans of rTorrent love that they can easily control rTorrent remotely over SSH, but a very nice web interface called wTorrent is available if you like the idea behind rTorrent but can't see yourself managing all your downloads through the command line.

Vuze (All Platforms)

Vuze (or the BitTorrent client formerly known as Azureus) is a free, cross-platform application written in Java. Often criticized for its memory footprint (70MB at startup for me—or about 10 times that of uTorrent), Vuze has recently re-branded; in addition to the torrent downloading, it's now a content distribution tool for original video. One of the biggest talking points for Vuze addicts is its distributed trackerless network, which allows users to find and download content from peers even when they can't find anything on a web tracker.

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Now that you've seen the best, it's time to vote for the BitTorrent client that gets the job done for you.

Which Is the Best BitTorrent Application?
( polls)

If you've picked your favorite BitTorrent client and you know our beginner and intermediate guides inside and out, check out our top 10 BitTorrent tools and tricks for more ! cool way s to get the most from BitTorrent.

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