What Is The Latest Acquisition On Google

Google fans (including me), enjoy finding out what Google is up to. It is in this spirit that I am sharing some news. Google has bought a company called Upstartle, which makes web-based word processing software called Writely. Both Google and Wrightly had little to say in their blogs, other than a deal being struck and the Google team is happy to have on board. I went to check both blogs this morning and they are absolutely jammed so I can't see what was written. I've linked them for you so you can see when the heat is off. I often smile, laugh or laugh out loud when I read Google News. It deserves to be laughed out loud. Google bought Upstartle because it wants to enable people to do office tasks over the Internet. That's a nice way of saying it wants to kick Microsoft's ****, which makes me smile. I think kicking off Microsoft's **** is a good part of their strategy. Money Magazine agrees with me, but thinks there's more to it. Google has always expressed a desire to move from client (PC) based computing to network (Internet) based computing. This basically means that only a small piece of the program you are using resides on your computer (called a thin client), and the rest resides on the server. I've been hearing that thin client computing is going to take off like a rocket for twenty years now. Sixteen years ago when Oracle's Larry Ellison was dismantling the computers used to make networks work, I thought it was a dumb idea, and I still do. At that time a powerful computer cost a few grand, and a USB dongle that held a gigabyte of data hadn't even been invented yet (I don't think USB was invented yet). The logic then was that a cheap network computer that cost a few hundred bucks could just connect to the network and use its processing and storage power. Now a powerful computer is worth a couple hundred bucks, so who needs a stripped down version? In addition, I want to control my resources and files and software. I don't want them sitting on Google's big huge hard drive so they can use them to decide what kind of ads to give me. And that's what money thinks is the end game. But competing with Microsoft is more of a consideration for Google, which is struggling with high expectations for Wall Street's continued growth. Browser-based applications like Writely could include contextual advertising from Google, a business that is projected to grow to $9.5 billion this year. listen to this: For Google, which has a math Ph.D. on staff. rewards, the calculation is dangerously simple. Google earns about $16 per user per year in advertising. There are over 300 million Microsoft Word users today. If Google persuades some of those users to use its Web-based software instead of Word, and they spend more time using other Google tools as a result, Google may increase its per-user ad sales. can increase. Even a $1 boost per user translates to $400 million in additional revenue. I'm not sure I want to use a web-based word processor that sticks in ads based on what I type. Wait... I'm sure. I'm not Jeez… with all those eggs gathered in one place on Google, are they serving context ads at best in a web-based word processing program? I'm starting to smell a trick pony. I hope I'm missing something, because I'm still not sure I understand what Google is trying to do, but it's fun to watch. I like to visit the Google Rumors website for more laughs. You should take a look.