Google Buys Digital Mapping Company
35394
Search enabler Google says it has acquired digital mapping company Keyhole for an undisclosed sum. Keyhole maintains a multiterabyte database of digital images of geographic locations, culled from satellite and aerial snapshots.
297567
Taking further aim at one of Microsoft's core franchises, Google said yesterday that it would acquire the e-mail security and management company Postini for $625 million. The deal underscores Google's ambitions to become a serious player in the business of selling software to companies and organizations, in competition with Microsoft and others.
525862
(InfoWorld) - Google is partnering with Discovery Networks, the U.S. National Park Service, and others to enrich its Google Earth mapping application with text and multimedia about geographic locations. With its Featured Content for Google Earth, announced Wednesday, Google will provide links to articles, images, blog postings, and videos that inform about topics like the environment, cities, attractions, parks, and landmarks. Other partners include the United Nations Environmental Program and the Jane Goodall Institute. This is the latest in aÂ string of enhancementsÂ for Google Earth, one of the company's most popular products. In recent months, GoogleÂ ported the applicationÂ to Linux and the Mac OS and integrated it with the company's SketchUp 3D design tool. Google Earth's user interface was also overhauled and itsÂ index of images significantly expanded. Google Earth, lauded by users and industry experts, is a free, downloadable application that taps into a massive database of satellite images. Its video game-like interface lets users "fly" around the globe, zooming in and out of cities. Google acquired the software in 2004 when itÂ bought Keyhole. The Google Earth product family also includes more advanced, fee-based versions of the application designed for commercial uses.
770292
(InfoWorld) - GoogleÂ is acquiring Panoramio, a photo-sharing Web site based in Spain that lets people upload photos and identify where they were taken by placing them on Google Earth or Google Maps, where they can be viewed by the public. The companies have already beenÂ working togetherÂ since the start of the year, when Google made Panoramio the default photo layer for Google Earth. Panoramio has seen its usage surge since then, recently passing 1 million "geo-located" photos. In a blog posting Wednesday, Google said it was buying the company to integrate its services more closely with its own -- although it isn't saying exactly how yet -- and to boost its own technical resources. It should also help to strengthen Panoramio's infrastructure, leading to more reliable service for end users. Financial terms of the acquisition, which is pending, were not disclosed. Google said it planned to keep operating the site for now and that there won't be any immediate changes for Panoramio's users. The move should help to strengthen Google's position against Yahoo for providing online photo services. Yahoo owns the popular Flickr photo-sharing service, whose users can also locate their photos on Google Earth, although they don't appear as the default layer. Panoramio said it was "very (and we mean very) happy" to be acquired by Google. "To watch our little project grow since its conception one and a half years ago has been an amazing experience," cofounder Eduardo ManchÃ³n wrote in a blog posting. Panoramio was launched in October 2005. About 300,000 people had signed up for the service as of March this year, and in February the site had 4 million unique visitors and 30 million page views, according to Panoramio. The company released an API (application programming interface) recently that lets other Web sites include Panoramio functionality in their site. It gave its users the option to remove all their photos and personal data before they are transferred to Google.
404103
Augmenting its technology assets and pushing into subscription services, Google (Quote, Chart) announced today that it has acquired digital mapping specialist Keyhole for an undisclosed sum.
624518
(InfoWorld) - OracleÂ is integrating one of its applications with Google's mapping service to help service providers locate customers more quickly. On Tuesday, Oracle said it had integrated the API (application programming interface) for Google Maps for Enterprise with the Field Service piece of Oracle E-Business Suite 12. Field Service helps companies manage the process of sending staff on service calls and predict when those employees will arrive at the customer sites. Using the Google Maps API, dispatchers should now also be able to find routes for their field service personnel to reach customers more quickly. At the same time, technicians can get a better sense of the location of their jobs by viewing those destinations on Google's map or its satellite images Bringing together content from a number of sources in an application or a Web site is proving very popular among software vendors and is often referred to as a mashup. Google Maps is one of the most frequently used APIs in mashups since it adds a useful visual element to applications. Oracle began theÂ rollout of E-Business Suite 12Â in January. Other new features in Field Service 12 include support for tasks lasting multiple days and the ability to track customers confirming their service appointments. There's also an administrator's portal to assist schedulers in handling jobs assigned to in-house or to third parties across time zones and geographies. The Google Maps integration is also available for Oracle Field Service 11.5.10. In other Oracle news, the vendor announced Symantec is an enterprise storage management partner for its Unbreakable Linux support program. The program providesÂ support for users of Red Hat's Enterprise LinuxÂ distribution, regardless of whether they are Oracle software users, at aggressive pricepoints. Oracle and Symantec have certified Symantec's Veritas data center software with Oracle Enterprise Linux and guaranteed to provide enterprise-level support for both the storage and the Linux offerings. The agreement covers six Veritas products -- Storage Foundation 5.0, Storage Foundation for Oracle 5.0, Storage Foundation Cluster File System 5.0, Cluster Server 5.0, NetBackup 6.0 Client and i3. While Oracle claims demand is growing for its support program, the vendor has yet to provide precise figures on user uptake. In March,Â Oracle CEO Larry Ellison saidÂ publicly that Unbreakable Linux had got off to a "very strong start" and committed his company to building a Linux business, while cautioning that such a process would take time. Â
494683
Google announced Friday that it bought FeedBurner, a firm specializing in delivering podcasts, weblogs, news and advertising to Internet browsers.
161896
Online search leader Google Inc. said Friday it purchased FeedBurner, which helps bloggers and podcasters syndicate and make money from their online content, for an undisclosed sum.
224431
Google Inc. said on Monday it has agreed to buy Web-based security provider Postini for $625 million, expanding its package of online applications to compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Office.
280546
Google will pay as much as $25 million to the first private company that lands a robotic rover on the moon and sends a gigabyte of images to Earth, the Internet search company said yesterday.
506368
Leave it to Google Inc. to innovate. Its new online mapping service produces impressive U.S. maps that please the eye and are fun to navigate. And unlike competing services, you can put all your search terms into one box.
653277
The world's top handset maker Nokia   NOK1V.HE said on Thursday it had agreed to buy mapping   software firm gate5 AG for an undisclosed sum to tap into the   fast-growing mobile navigation market.
304928
By Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune  Jun. 2--At a time when everyone from stay-at-home moms to international media conglomerates call themselves publishers, a small Chicago company sitting in the middle of a distribution revolution was purchased Friday by Web giant Google Inc.
396935
IHS Energy, which provides maps and technical databases to oil and natural-gas producers, acquired Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the consulting company
93938
Google on Tuesday acquiredÂ Peakstream, a Redwood City, Calif., developer ofÂ software for multicore and parallel processors, the company said.
704683
TomTom , the world's biggest  maker of car navigation devices, plans to buy its main map  supplier, Tele Atlas, for 1.8 billion euros ($2.5 billion) to  improve the digital maps used by millions of drivers.
304334
Google acquired voice communications management company GrandCentral on Monday, a move that it hopes will strengthen its service offerings.