The shopping spree continues. What's next? |
> What's next?
Google thinks big these days. Here are the top 50 web properties according to ComScore, in order of importance (http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1429):
- Yahoo (probably too expensive... would acquiring this cause legal troubles due to monopoly?)
- Time Warner
- Google [x]
- Microsoft (probably too expensive at this time)
- Fox
- eBay (too expensive?)
- Wikipedia [Wikipedia founder says "no" to this deal)
- Amazon
- Ask Network (huh, really?!)
- New York Times (Google has rarely shown in interest in news content networks, but never say never)
- Weather Channel (hmm, why not, it's data, and everything...)
- Viacom (currently battling Google in court)
- Apple
- CNET (same as NYT above)
- Adobe (why not)
- Gorilla Nation
- Wal-Mart
- AT&T
- Target Corporation
- Expedia (a travel info & booking site, why not, it fits)
- United Online, Inc.
- Facebook (lots of people/ social data, might fit)
- Lycos (too old school, then again they snatched up old-school DoubleClick)
- Monster Worldwide (makes a lot of sense, to have all that job data)
- CBS Corporation
- Verizon Communications Corporation
- Bank of America
- CareerBuilder LLC
- Gannett Sites
- Idearc Media
- Disney Online (too kids-oriented, I guess, Google seems to be more general-purpose oriented)
- Shopzilla.com Sites
- Photobucket.com LLC
- CraigsList.org (lots of data, why not)
- Real.com Network (Real is also old-school, but see comment on Lycos above...)
- Travelport
- Comcast Corporation
- Yellowpages.com Network (might make sense, though do they have data Google doesn't already have?)
- ESPN (too content-oriented, too specific target group?)
- iVillage.com women's network
- ArtistDirect network
- WebMD Health (they partner with Google Co-op, don't they? Lot's of health data Google might be interested in...)
- WhitePages
- Cox Enterprises Inc.
- Weatherbug Property
- Citysearch
- NBC Universal
- USPS.com
- JPMorgan Chase Property
- Ticketmaster
So, from above list what seems like a good fit:
- Weather Channel, Expedia, Monster.com, YellowPages (in particular Expedia and Monster.com)
... and, to a lesser extent:
- CraigsList, Facebook, WebMD
... and, if price & monopoly troubles don't matter, also:
- Ebay, Microsoft, Yahoo |
It's interesting that you didn't pick Amazon. They are an innovative competitor bubbling "just below the top".
They have a robust online storage service, their "search within a book" service works well, their Mechanical Turk online sweatshop is innovative, they have social sites such as their two Answers sites (Askville and NowNow). And of course Google would switch A9 from using Microsoft results to using Google's.
It would all be useful stuff for Google – or, at least, it would be as useful as some of the other stuff they're buying. |
I think something like Comcast would be a good purchase for them. Think of all the ads they could tie into set top cable boxes. Plus that would be one huge player not to worry about when it comes to net neutrality.
And maybe, just maybe my cable bill would get cheaper being ad supported. :) |
You are right Roger... Amazon ought to be on the "if price doesn't matter" list... |
Amazon would also be a great way to push adoption of google checkout |
Google should buy a stake in Apple. Then we might finally get some cool Google Mac apps. |
Google has generally followed three directions: innovation, adoption (of older companies) and integration (make existing Google services more tight-knit). To me it seems that innovation within Google has slowed (besides the whisper-in-the-halls rumors of Niniane Wang's project). Acquisitions are either phased in at a snail's pace (Jotspot, Wordly) or used as-is (Feedburner, YouTube). The integration is moving even slower (took 4 months for the Gmail/Gcal connection to really come through). Whats more, they are focusing less on projects that already out of the oven (Todo list on Gcal is still missing!). It seems that they are spreading themselves a little thin . Expansion is clearly healthy but not at any expense.
Feedburner is a great purchase because it really allows Google to integrate their sales model into it. However, making any huge purchase, like Facebook, would spread them even thinner. No? |
I don't see why they would buy a social networking site now. It just seems like a really expensive move for them if they did. They partnered with Myspace why can't they do that with FaceBook? |
They have Orkut allready. And don't forget "Google Fensi" |
> They have Orkut allready
As (Google) history taught us, that in itself is no reason against the acquision of another same service... just think of Google buying YouTube when they already had the (technically superior) Google Video. |
Yes your right. They bought that because it has the communitie. And Facebook and myspace certainly have the community |
I would also say IMDB.. if you need info on a movie, just type imdb + the name in google and you got it..
now, integrating it into google would be soo much cooler :) |
Eh,
http://googlefeedburner.blogspot.com/ has been taken and is Invited users only. Guess http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/ will be on the move to Blogger. |
Mm, buy Facebook, for the pre-existing community (and improve on the interface at the same time).
(Amazon would be a bit weird, no? They haven't shown any sign of wanting to buy shops, have they? Rather – Google Base, Product Search – they hope to encourage as many retailers as possible to want to get their listings seen through Google.) |
Mabey Epic2015 (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic) was right about their "Googlezon" theory.
http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/16285/2004380688168589724_rs.jpg
BTW doesn't Google Grids sound like base and GDrive combined?
[Fixed URL – Tony] |
If they don't buy lulu or something like it, I wonder what they're going to do in the music space. They must have their own big plans. Google Music Search doesn't exactly solve the finding music you might like question – a thing so many little companies are trying to do. |
Do you mean lala? Whats lulu |
Oops, yes, sorry, lala. Lulu sounds dodgy. |
Lulu.com is a printing site. You can upload a pdf file and print it any way you want. Philipp used it to print his 55 ways to have fun with Google book I think. |
Wow! (Thats pronounced "woe". I can't spell wow) Philipp sold 861 copies
861.00
x 15.83
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13629.63 |
