The Best Google Acquisitions Ever Companies
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The Best Google Acquisitions Ever

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A list of the smartest, most forward-thinking business acquisitions Google has ever made. Google has acquired many other companies since 2001. Sometimes, these products end up living on under their former names - as in the cases of DoubleClick, Blogger, YouTube and Android. On other occasions, the former products get integrated into pre-existing or future Google applications, as int he case of the numerous map companies that blended together to create Google Maps. Finally, some companies end up being plundered for staff or useful parts, and then disbanded. This list can contain companies from all of these groups, so long as the acquisition - long-term - was beneficial to Google and wise in retrospect.

This is an Open List, so after you've voted on the smartest acquisitions, feel free to add your own suggestions at the bottom of the page.
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Rank     Name
  1. 1
    Up 112
    Down 4

    YouTube

    Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, Steve Chen
    “ The world's largest video sharing site, founded in 2005 and acquired in November 2006. „
  2. 2
    Up 82
    Down 8

    Android Inc.

    “ Initial developers of the Android mobile operating system „
  3. 3
    Up 35
    Down 19

    Motorola Mobility

    added by: Keaton
    “ Former mobile division of Motorola. Acquisition still pending approval. „
  4. 4
    Up 29
    Down 16

    Applied Semantics

    “ Online advertising. Integrated into AdSense and AdWords. „
  5. 5
    Up 26
    Down 17

    Pyra Labs

    Evan Williams, Meg Hourihan
    “ Creators of Blogger „
  7. 6
    Up 27
    Down 21

    Picasa

    “ Image Organizer „
  8. 7
    Up 19
    Down 14

    Urchin Software

    “ Web analytics software. Became Google Analytics. „
  9. 8
    Up 21
    Down 16

    Zagat Survey

    Nina Zagat, Tim Zagat
    added by: Keaton
    “ Publishers of collaborative restaurant and nightlife guides and surveys „
  10. 9
    Up 18
    Down 13

    AdMob

    Omar Hamoui
    added by: Lons
    “ One of the world's largest mobile ad companies, currently serving multiple platforms including Android. „
  11. 10
    Up 18
    Down 14

    DoubleClick

    “ One of the earliest Application Service Providers (ASPs) for serving Internet ads „
  12. 11
    Up 15
    Down 14

    reCAPTCHA

    “ Service for using CAPTCHA challenge-response authenticator to digitize old books. Currently in use to enhance and expand the Google Books archive. „
  13. 12
    Up 14
    Down 13

    Picnik

    Mike Harrington, Darrin Massena
    added by: Lons
    “ Online photo editing service which had partnered with Flickr. „
  14. 13
    Up 12
    Down 13

    FeedBurner

    Dick Costolo, Matt Shobe, Dick Costolo More
    “ Web feed manager providing custom RSS feeds and management tools „
  15. 14
    Up 10
    Down 12

    Fflick

    added by: Lons
    “ Web service aggregating reviews and info about films from Twitter. Plans to integrate some of the product into YouTube. „
  16. 15
    Up 8
    Down 10

    Invite Media

    added by: Keaton
    “ Display advertising and exchange bidding company acquired by Google subsidiary DoubleClick „
  17. 16
    Up 10
    Down 14

    Metaweb Technologies, Inc.

    Danny Hillis, Robert Cook, John Giannandrea
    added by: Lons
    “ Original developers of the Freebase open, shared database „
  18. 17
    Up 8
    Down 13

    SocialDeck

    added by: Lons
    “ Mobile game developer. Creator of the games Shake & Spell, Pet Hero and Color Connect. „
  19. 18
    Up 6
    Down 11

    Next New Networks

    added by: Keaton
    “ Web TV company. Now known as "YouTube Next Lab and Audience Development Group." „
  20. 19
    Up 5
    Down 11
    No image

    Upstartle

    “ Creators of the Writely Word Processor, later integrated into Google Docs „
  21. 20
    Up 2
    Down 8

    Postini

    Scott Petry, Shinya Akamine
    added by: sevenrare
    “ Postini is an e-mail and Web security and archiving service owned by Google since 9 July 2007. It provides cloud computing services for filtering e-mail spam and malware (before it is delivered to a client’s mail server), offers optional e-mail archiving, and protects client networks from web-borne malware. Google spent $625 million in cash for the acquisition. This will integrated with GMail. [link] [link] Read more: http://sevenrare.com/seven-companies-acquired-by-google/#ixzz1cEs8PxbK „
  23. 21
    Up 6
    Down 14

    GrandCentral

    Vincent Paquet, Craig Walker
    “ Phone management service, relaunched with new features in 2009 as Google Voice „
  24. 22
    Up 4
    Down 13

    ITA Software

    Carl de Marcken, Dave Baggett
    added by: Lons
    “ Travel industry data collection and software company „

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    1. Tarra Steeples
      The Best Google Acquisitions Ever at 8/26/2012 2:30 PM
      NiceGoogle Acquisitions, dude
    2. Angie Marie
      The Best Google Acquisitions Ever at 9/15/2011 10:08 AM
      Wow, looking at this list makes me scared for further generations. If Google is so huge already with no signs of stopping anytime soon, what else will they acquire or control 50 or 100 years from now? Can we expect to use Google toothpaste then eat Google cereal and drive our Google cars to work listening to Google radio? I'm sure I'm just being silly, but looking at how fast they've grown in a short amount of time, you have to wonder.
      1. mwahahahaha
        The Best Google Acquisitions Ever at 5/05/2012 7:26 PM
        Google cereal must be made of Google fibre!

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