Google Acquires DocVerse For $25 Mil
Google has acquired real-time editing and sharing of Office documents, DocVerse, for $25 million.
From Google Blog: With DocVerse, people can begin to experience some of the benefits of web-based collaboration using the traditional Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop applications.
A huge “welcome” to the DocVerse team and their customers! Current DocVerse users can keep using the product as usual, though we’ve suspended new sign-ups until we’re ready to share what’s next. Stay tuned!
Google Buys Picnik
Online photo editing application, Picnik has now been acquired by Google. You can use Picnik to crop, do touch-ups and add cool effects to your photos, all without leaving your web browser.
From Google Blog: We’re not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we’ll be working hard on integration and new features. As well, we’d like to continue supporting all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo sharing sites, make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks.
Google Gives $2 Million To Support Wikipedia
Google has given Wikimedia Foundation a $2m donation, to allow Wikipedia to grow. EBay founder Pierre Omidyar has donated $2m too a few months ago.
The donation from Google was announced on Twitter by a member of the Wikimedia board. Jimmy Wales tweeted: Google has donated $2 million to the Wikimedia Foundation! Formal announcement tomorrow…
Google Adds MySpace Status To Search
Twitter status dominates Google’s real time search, and MySpace updates will now appear too. Will this be useful? Google also plans to include updates from FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca.
Google Buys Social Startup Aardvark
Google has acquired search startup Aardvark for $50 million in its latest attempt to beef up its standing in the growing social search market. Aardvark was founded in late 2007 by Max Ventilla, Damon Horowitz, Nathan Stoll, and Rob Spiro.
A description of what is Aardvark:
Aardvark is a new kind of tool that lets you tap into the knowledge and experience of friends and friends-of-friends.
Send Aardvark a question (from the web, IM, email, Twitter, or iPhone) and you’ll get a quick, helpful response from someone with…
- The right knowledge and experience to help
- Similar tastes
- Friends in common
Google Buzz Challenges Facebook And Twitter
Google Buzz makes Gmail social by letting users view media and status updates shared online by their friends. This format is popular with Facebook and Twitter. Status update through Buzz is not limited to 140 characters.
From Google Blog: Our belief is that organizing the social information on the web — finding relevance in the noise — has become a large-scale challenge, one that Google’s experience in organizing information can help solve. We’ve recently launched innovations like real-time search and Social Search, and today we’re taking another big step with the introduction of a new product, Google Buzz.
Google Airing ‘Parisian Love’ Ad During Superbowl
Google is said to air ‘Parisian Love’ ad during the third quarter of the SuperBowl tomorrow night. You can check it out here first before watching it on the big screen.
Apple’s Steve Job Says Google Evil And Adobe Lazy
As reported on Wired, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs took some time answering questions at the One Infinite Loop after the big event. Questions about Google and Adobe were thrown at Steve and here is how he answered it.
About Google: We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them, he says. This don’t be evil mantra: “It’s bullshit.”
About Adobe: They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.
Source: Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra is ‘Bullshit,’ Adobe Is Lazy: Apple’s Steve Jobs (Update 2)
Google Drops Support for IE 6
Google has phased out Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 from March 1 for all their services such as Google Docs and Google Sites.
Google Chrome 4 Adds Extensions
Just like Firefox, Google has added add ons for their Chrome browser version 4.0. The search company called it Extensions. Google also added Opera-like bookmark sync function.
From Google blog: Extensions let you add new features and functions to your browser. Some provide one-click access to some of your favorite web applications like eBay and digg, or news and information sources such as NPR and Time.com. Others are useful tweaks for performing common online tasks such as browsing photos, getting directions or shopping.
