Google帝國正在以神奇的速度擴(kuò)張著，William Slawski 采編了一部Google收購其他公司的完整歷史，有些收購你可能從來沒聽說過?？纯碐oogle是怎樣成為今天的Google的。<br /><br /><a href=‘http://solidot.org/article.php/20051227233059691‘ target=‘_blank‘>http://solidot.org/article.php/20051227233059691</a><br /><br />原來地址：http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=64<br /><br />Google Acquisitions <br /><br />posted @ 1:11 am in [ Search Engines and Directories ] by William <br /><br />Slawski <br /><br />With all of the recent acquisitions by Yahoo! and Google, I decided to take a closer look at some of the companies that Google has purchased. I’m glad I did. I came across a couple of papers I hadn’t seen before, and learned a little more about some of Google’s employees that I didn’t know.<br /><br />Android<br /><br />Android (August 2005), software for mobile telephones<br />Founded by Andy Rubin, accompanied by Andy McFadden, Richard Miner, and Chris White.<br /><br />Akwan Information Technologies<br /><br />Akwan Information Technologies (July 2005)<br />Google Press Release: Google Continues International Expansion, Opens Offices in Latin America<br /><br />The office in Sao Paulo, Brazil follows the acquisition of Brazil’s Akwan Information Technologies Inc. in July of this year. Akwan has become Google’s R&D centre in Brazil.<br /><br />An example of the type of research being conducted by the people at Akwan: Distributed Processing of Conjunctive Queries (pdf)<br /><br />Dodgeball<br /><br />Dodgeball (May 2005), social-networking software for mobile devices<br /><br />Founders Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert, see: Google Buys Social Networking Firm and The Future of Wireless<br /><br />Urchin Software<br /><br />Urchin Software (March 2005), Web Analytics software<br />Google Press Release: Google Agrees To Acquire Urchin<br /><br />Urchin is a web site analytics solution used by web site owners and marketers to better understand their users’ experiences, optimize content and track marketing performance.<br /><br />Patent Applications:<br /><br />System and method for tracking unique visitors to a website<br /><br />Abstract:<br /><br />A system and method for analyzing traffic to a website is provided that is based on log files and that uses both server-side and client-side information channeled through one source to create a more complete picture of activity to a website. In one preferred embodiment, a sensor code is embedded in a requested web page, and sends information back to the web server where the website resides. This additional information is logged along with normal requests.<br /><br />System and method for monitoring and analyzing internet traffic<br /><br />Abstract:<br /><br />A system and method for monitoring and analyzing Internet traffic is provided that is efficient, completely automated, and fast enough to handle the busiest websites on the Internet, processing data many times faster than existing systems. The system and method of the present invention processes data by reading log files produced by web servers, or by interfacing with the web server in real time, processing the data as it occurs. The system and method of the present invention can be applied to one website or thousands of websites, whether they reside on one server or multiple servers. The multi-site and sub-reporting capabilities of the system and method of the present invention makes it applicable to servers containing thousands of websites and entire on-line communities. In one embodiment, the system and method of the present invention includes e-commerce analysis and reporting functionality, in which data from standard traffic logs is received and merged with data from e-commerce systems. The system and method of the present invention can produce reports showing detailed “return on investment” information, including identifying which banner ads, referrals, domains, etc. are producing specific dollars.<br /><br />Zipdash<br /><br />Zipdash (December 2004) Provides navigation assistance for road traffic on mobile in real time by GPS.<br />See: Navigating by phone and Google acquires traffic info start-up Zipdash<br /><br />Where 2 Technologies<br /><br />Where 2 Technologies (October 2004), Internet mapping<br /><br />Brothers Lars Eilstrup Rasmussen and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen are from Google’s Sydney office, and have been actively involved in the patent applications behind Google Maps, and using Geographic location information. Before then, they were with Where 2 technologies. See: Take browsers to the limit: Google, and Google Maps and AJAX vs WithStyle - the Australian Legacy, and Assigning Geographic Locations to Web Pages. <br /><br />Keyhole<br /><br />Keyhole (October 2004), imagery by satellite<br />Google Press Release: Google Acquires Keyhole Corp<br /><br />Keyhole’s technology combines a multi-terabyte database of mapping information and images collected from satellites and airplanes with easy-to-use software.<br /><br />Picassa<br /><br />Picasa (July 2004), software of management of photographs on line<br />Google Press Release: Google Acquires Picasa<br /><br />Google Inc. today announced it acquired Picasa, Inc., a Pasadena, Calif.-based digital photo management company<br /><br />Ignite Logic<br /><br />Ignite Logic (May 2004), design of turn key legal sites. Puzzling acquisition, though founder David Ferguson has an interesting past.<br /><br />Genius Labs<br /><br />Genius Labs (October 2003), Biz Stone was Genius Labs. He is no longer with Google.<br /><br />Sprinks<br /><br />Sprinks (October 2003), paid advertising<br /><br />Kaltix<br /><br />Kaltix (September 2003), Research on personalized search, from Taher Haveliwala, Glen Jeh, and Sepandar Kamvar.<br />Google Press Release: Google Acquires Kaltix Corp.<br /><br />Kaltix Corp. was formed in June 2003 and focuses on developing personalized and context-sensitive search technologies that make it faster and easier for people to find information on the web.<br /><br />Patent application:<br /><br />System and method for presenting multiple sets of search results for a single query<br /><br />Abstract:<br /><br />A system and a method that manages a user query by a single interaction between a server and a client. A plurality of clients send queries for search results to a server. The server receives these queries and performs multiple searches to generate multiple sets of search results. These sets of search results are ranked, consolidated and passed to the requesting client. The client stores these multiple sets of search results. The client then displays these search results in accordance to the boundary defined by the user. This boundary defines the portions of the search results that the user desires to view. The user may re-define the boundary. The client identifies the search results corresponding to the boundary and displays them. <br /><br />Applied Semantics<br /><br />Applied Semantics (April 2003), contextual advertising<br />Google Press Release: Google Acquires Applied Semantics<br /><br />Applied Semantics’ products are based on its patented CIRCA technology, which understands, organizes, and extracts knowledge from websites and information repositories in a way that mimics human thought and enables more effective information retrieval.<br /><br />Patents:<br /><br />Meaning-based advertising and document relevance determination<br /><br />Abstract:<br /><br />The present invention is directed to a system in which a semantic space is searched in order to determine the semantic distance between two locations. A further aspect of the present invention provides a system in which a portion of semantic space is purchased and associated with a target data set element which is returned in response to a search input. The semantic space is created by a lexicon of concepts and relations between concepts. An input is associated with a location in the semantic space. Similarly, each data element in the target data set being searched is associated with a location in the semantic space. Searching is accomplished by determining a semantic distance between the first and second location in semantic space, wherein this distance represents their closeness in meaning and where the cost for retrieval of target data elements is based on this distance.<br /><br />Meaning-based information organization and retrieval<br /><br />Abstract:<br /><br />The present invention relies on the idea of a meaning-based search, allowing users to locate information that is close in meaning to the concepts they are searching. A semantic space is created by a lexicon of concepts and relations between concepts. A query is mapped to a first meaning differentiator, representing the location of the query in the semantic space. Similarly, each data element in the target data set being searched is mapped to a second meaning differentiator, representing the location of the data element in the semantic space. Searching is accomplished by determining a semantic distance between the first and second meaning differentiator, wherein this distance represents their closeness in meaning. Search results on the input query are presented where the target data elements that are closest in meaning, based on their determined semantic distance, are ranked higher.<br /><br />Neotonic Software<br /><br />Neotonic Software (April 2003), email customer support Case Study from neotonic, about how they helped Google in the days before the purchase. Google also hired David Jeske, who was the co-founder of Neotonic and the former director of engineering for eGroups. <br /><br />Pyra Labs<br /><br />Pyra Labs (February 2003), editor of Blogger, blogging platform<br /><br />Outride<br /><br />Outride (September 2001), a Xerox PARC spinoff, data-mining and semantic analysis. See: Personalized Search: A contextual computing approach may prove a breakhrough in personalized search efficiency (pdf) and Personalized Search<br /><br />Google Press Release: Google Acquires Technology Assets of Outride Inc.<br /><br />Outride, a spin-off from Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), was created to apply state-of-the-art model-based relevance technology to the challenge of online information retrieval.<br /><br />Deja<br /><br />Deja.com (February 2001), Purchase of their usenet archive and other assets, which become Google Groups.<br />Google Press Release: Google Acquires Usenet Discussion Service and Significant Assets from Deja.com<br />
老魏 05-12-28 04:23
2005年6月以前的重要收購：<br /><br />Google是新的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨人。在這位巨人成長過程中，吞食掉很多大大小小的公司。今天我們來回顧一下那些已經(jīng)被Google收入囊中的公司，同時(shí)也會對誰將成為Google的下個(gè)目標(biāo)做以分析。<br /><br />已經(jīng)被收購的：<br /><br />·Deja News（即現(xiàn)在的Google Groups）- 原本是間基于新聞組Usenet服務(wù)的公司，于1995年創(chuàng)建。99年和2000年時(shí)，Deja盲目地陷進(jìn)了在線購物這壇混水中。賠了不少銀子，之后也就是2000年晚些時(shí)候，Deja將Shopping這部分業(yè)務(wù)賣給了eBay，成為Half.com的一部分。<br />2001年2月，大G(注：即Google)介入U(xiǎn)senet服務(wù)并奪取了其新聞組存檔，在私人收藏的幫助下，Google Groups使新聞組存檔擴(kuò)展到了1981年。時(shí)至今日，Deja的Usenet、郵件列表已經(jīng)成為Google Groups的重要組成部分。<br /><br />·Outride - Outride是PARC(施樂帕洛阿爾托研究中心)旗下的公司，提供在線信息檢索技術(shù)。2001年9月，Google將Outride的核心技術(shù)應(yīng)用到它自己的搜索引擎中。Outride.com已經(jīng)不存在，Outride.net象征性地指向了Google的首頁。<br /><br />·Applied Semantics - Google現(xiàn)在所用的AdSense/AdWords服務(wù)均來自于這家公司，于2003年4月正式啟用，Google借此來與Yahoo!的Overture相競爭。<br /><br />·Kaltix - 這間只有三位成員的搜索技術(shù)公司剛剛冒出，就被Google拿下了。這三位老兄都來自美國斯坦福大學(xué)PageRank小組。他們提出的個(gè)性化搜索技術(shù)還沒有任何一家搜索引擎公司所采用，正當(dāng)這三位老兄向其它搜索引擎公司展示他們的技術(shù)時(shí)，Google找上門來，并于2003年9月收購Kaltix，并將其技術(shù)應(yīng)用在Google個(gè)性化搜索服務(wù)中。<br /><br />·Blogger - Blogger.com是Pyra Labs的旗艦產(chǎn)品。Blogger的成長速度驚人，曾創(chuàng)下單月過百萬注冊用戶的紀(jì)錄。但在很長時(shí)間里，它沒有賺到錢，連線上廣告業(yè)務(wù)也沒有。原始資本快花光了，一些員工也辭職了，包括當(dāng)初一起創(chuàng)立Blogger的部分成員。Pyra試圖扭轉(zhuǎn)頹勢，于是引入了Blogspot的付費(fèi)模式，效果一般。很明顯，簡單的copy模式是不夠的，Pyra需要更多資金來維持正常運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。2003年中，Google向其注入資金。后來的故事就像今天所看到的，Blogger于2004年5月請來專業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)師重新設(shè)計(jì)了頁面。目前它已成為人們最常用的工具之一。<br /><br />·Picasa - Picasa是什么？只是一套價(jià)值30美元的照片管理軟件。第一版發(fā)布于2001年10月。2004年5月，Picasa宣布將其技術(shù)整合到Google Blogger中。接下來，Google在2004年7月收購了這家公司，Picasa也變成了免費(fèi)軟件(freeware)，Picasa曾榮獲許多PC雜志的獎項(xiàng)。<br /><br />·Keyhole - Keyhole創(chuàng)立于2001年，提供數(shù)字地圖服務(wù)。2004年10月被Google收購，從那時(shí)起，Keyhole地圖軟件包的售價(jià)由$69.95降為$29.95。其技術(shù)已經(jīng)被集成在Google Maps搜索服務(wù)中。<br /><br />·Zipdash - Google于2004年收購了這家以提供交通量地圖為主要業(yè)務(wù)的公司。這起并購沒有做多少宣揚(yáng)，Google僅在2004年報(bào)中提及過Zipdash。<br /><br />·Where2 - 這家澳大利亞的地圖公司也在Google 2004年報(bào)中有所提及，但是知之甚少，應(yīng)該也是和Google Map有關(guān)。<br /><br />·Urchin - 一間Web分析和統(tǒng)計(jì)公司，于2005年3月被Google收購?？赡苡糜贏dWords/AdSense技術(shù)中。<br /><br />·Dodgeball - Google于2005年5月收購了這間只有2個(gè)人的手機(jī)社會化網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司。這間公司一直在尋找投資者，Google順理成章為它埋了單。目前為止還沒有什么消息傳出，但其技術(shù)可能被用于Google Mobile。<br /><br /><br />上面就是已經(jīng)被Google收購的公司。一個(gè)常見的誤解是Google在首次IPO以后才開始收購，其實(shí)IPO只是讓Google收購變得更容易而已，在IPO之前，從2001到2004年8月，Google收購了6家公司，IPO以后又收購了5家公司。<br /><br />我們剛才回顧了歷史，下面是我個(gè)人認(rèn)為Google應(yīng)該、可能、將要，也許會考慮收購的公司。<br /><br />可能被收購的公司：<br /><br />理由之一，這些公司的服務(wù)被相當(dāng)多的Google Bloggers使用著，之二，這些公司的特征符合Google未來的發(fā)展戰(zhàn)略，并且可以很好的與Google現(xiàn)有的服務(wù)相融合在一起；之三，這些公司雖然很小，但是很快就在用戶中變得非常流行。<br /><br />·Technorati - 如果說一般人把Google設(shè)為首頁，那么Technorati則是那些有一定技術(shù)專長用戶的首頁。Technorati是Blog門戶，經(jīng)常訪問Technorati的，是那些喜歡podcasts，Wikipedia的用戶，因?yàn)樗鼙绕胀ㄋ阉饕嫣峁└靶l(wèi)的搜索結(jié)果。Technorati可能會和GoogleNews或者Blogger整合得很好，或者成為Google個(gè)性化首頁的一部分。Technorati有些類似于Bloglines，而后者剛被Ask Jeeves收購。<br /><br />·Buzznet - Yahoo!通過過收購Flickr給了Google一記重拳。<br />Buzznet與Flickr類似，提供照片存放和標(biāo)簽分享服務(wù)。<br />Buzznet也許會轉(zhuǎn)向Picasa的Hello Photo服務(wù)，并且與Orkut很好的整合在一起。<br /><br />·Koders - 一個(gè)很好的開放原代碼搜索引擎。有趣的是，最近Google發(fā)布的一些諸如桌面搜索(GDS)之類的軟件，都被Koders主動收錄了。在某種程度上，它對于Google Code和Google Linux Search很有意義。<br /><br />·GuruNet (Answers.com) - 最近，Google中止了到Dictionary.com的連接定義，轉(zhuǎn)向了Answers.com。Answers.com使用Wikipedia使得自己的信息豐富而多樣化。Wikipedia的的非盈利原則，使得不會成為Google潛在的承購對象。這樣看來，Answer.com應(yīng)該是最最佳的選擇，同時(shí)，它還可以幫Google改進(jìn)問答機(jī)制。有趣的是，GuruNet是一個(gè)公開交易的公司(AMEX: GRU)，市值大約為100百萬美金。<br /><br />·del.icio.us - 它的社會化書簽和標(biāo)簽應(yīng)用軟件將有助于改進(jìn)Google的搜索結(jié)果，并且可能與Orkut整合。<br /><br />·StumbleUpon - 獨(dú)特的瀏覽器插件，也許將有助于改進(jìn)Google的搜索結(jié)果，并其之提高到一個(gè)新的水平?？赡芘cGoogle Toolbar整合，因?yàn)閮烧叨加蓄愃频墓δ堋?lt;br /><br />·Propel - 與Google Web加速器相似，Propel聲稱可以加速沖浪體驗(yàn)。這間公司的創(chuàng)始人是光電鼠標(biāo)得發(fā)明者Steven T. Kirsch。他的Frame Technology Corp.和Infoseek公司分別被Adobe和Disney收購了。這個(gè)產(chǎn)品能夠幫助GoogleWeb加速器解決當(dāng)前的小麻煩(WeiZhenYu.com)。<br />
