CoolTechZone published a timeline of Google’s acquisitions. In retrospect, it is interesting to see what were those acquisitions used for and how their employees and cultures mashed with Google’s ones. As David Vise claims in “The Google Story” and a recent article “Googling for Gold” in BusinessWeek explains, Google’s approach to acquisitions has been to seek for technology start-ups which have a product, technology or idea that can easily be incorporated into the rest of Google’s galaxy of products and naturally expand it, and not an overhyped marketing-driven corporation. See for yourself the Google acquisition and investment story so far:
Date |
Company Name |
Field |
Related Google Service |
2005 Jul |
Mobile Devices Software Provider |
Possible use for Google Talk or Google Phone |
|
2005 Jul |
Internet Communications |
Possible use for Google Wi-Fi |
|
2005 May |
Mobile based social networking |
Integrate with Google Maps/Earth/Ride Finder |
|
2005 May |
Web Analytics |
Google Analytics |
|
2004 Dec |
Mobile GPS/Traffic Updates |
Google Ride Finder |
|
2004 Oct |
Maps |
Google Maps, Google Earth |
|
2004 Oct |
Image Management |
Picasa/Blogger |
|
2004 Apr |
Setting up Websites for Law Firms |
Possible use for Searching Laws/Lawsuits |
|
2003 Oct |
Blogging |
Blogger.com |
|
2003 Oct |
Advertising |
AdSense and AdWord |
|
2003 Sep |
Personalized Internet Search |
Google Personal |
|
2003 Apr |
Online Advertising |
AdSense, AdWatch |
|
2003 Apr |
E-Mail Customer Support |
E-mail Discussion Groups, Gmail, CRM |
|
2003 Feb |
Blogging |
Blogger.com |
|
2001 Sep |
Personalized Internet Search |
Personalizing Internet Search |
|
2001 Feb |
Usenet Search |
Google Groups |