Thursday 23 December 2010

Google's Shopping Spree In 2010


The following startups were all acquired in the year 2010.

1. Aardvark a Social Search company based in the US was acquired on February 12, 2010 for $50,000,000.

2. reMail is an Email Search startup based in the US. ReMail was acquired for an undisclosed price on February 17, 2010 and integrated with Gmail.

3. On March 1, 2010 Picnik a Photo Editing app was acquired for $5,000,000 and integrated with Picasa .

4. DocVerse , a Microsoft Office files sharing site was acquired on March 5, 2010 for $25,000,000 and integrated with Google Docs.

5. Episodic an Online video platform startups was integrated with Youtube. The company was bought on April 2, 2010 for an undisclosed price.

6. On April 12, 2010 PlinkArt a Visual Search Engine Mobile start-up based in the UK was acquired to be integrated with Google Goggles. Price undisclosed.

7. Agnilux a Server technology start-up was bought for an undisclosed amount

8. LabPixies developer of gadgets was acquired on April 27, 2010 for an undisclosed amount.

9. Bump Technologies a Canadian desktop environment developer was bought for $30,000,000 on April 30, 2010 to be integrated with Google Android

10. On May 20, 2010 Simplify Media a UK music syncing startup was bought for an undisclosed amount to be integrated with Android.

11. Ruba.com is a travel site and was acquired on May 21, 2010 to be integrated with Google. Price undisclosed.

12. On June 3, 2010 Invite Media an advertising company was bought for $81,000,000 for DoubleClick integration.

13. ITA Software a travel technology company was acquired on July 1, 2010 for $700,000,000.

14. Metaweb a semantic search company was bought on July 16, 2010.

15. On August 4, 2010 Instantiations a Java/Eclipse/AJAX Developer Tools company
was bought to be integrated with Google Web Toolkit.

16. Slide.com a social gaming startup was acquired on August 5, 2010 for $182,000,000.

17. Jambool a social gold payment platform was bought on August 10, 2010 for $70,000,000.

18. Like.com a visual search engine was bought for $100,000,000 on August 15, 2010 to be integrated with boutiques.com.

19. Angstro a social networking service was bought on August 30, 2010

20. SocialDeck, Inc. a Canadian social gaming company was acquired on August 30, 2010

21. Quiksee an online video site was bought for $10,000,000 on September 13, 2010 to be integrated with Google Maps

22. Plannr a schedule management company was acquired on September 28, 2010

23. On October 1, 2010 , BlindType a Touch Typing startup from Greece was bought to be integrated with Android.

24. Phonetic Arts a Speech synthesis company from UK was bought on December 3, 2010 for integration with Google Voice.

25. Widevine Tecnologies a DRM company was acquired on December 3, 2010 for Google TV integration

26. Google also acquired Zetawire a Canadian startup focusing on mobile payments transactions in December 2010.

Thursday 16 December 2010

Built-In Bullshit Detector

Progress, progress


The most clichéd and overused phrases for the past year using over 85 million LinkedIn profiles. Here are 2010 top 10 buzzwords used in the USA.

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial


As Hemingway once said “Develop a built-in bullshit detector''.
Eh, human resources fans ;)

Via linkedIn blog

Saturday 11 December 2010

The Day Dollar Died

It's not anymore question of ''if'', but ''when''.

Nobody knows exact timing. Nobody knows exact consequences. Everyone who says he's smart enough to know about this, is a liar.

Why I care about all of this ? Well, the effect of this unfortunate event in USA will be felt all around the World. Immediatly. Remember October 2008 ?

This time will be worse. Here's a movie about one of those scenarios :



Most Americans are naive enough to believe that because the U.S. has survived for so long with such a huge national debt and continuous budget deficits, the country will be able to continue down this path forever without any consequences because after all, this is America we are talking about.

The truth is, US national debt has grown by 70.7% over the past five years, compared to 41.8% during the previous five years, and 14.3% during the five years before that.

Meanwhile, US GDP has grown by 17.9% over the past five years, compared to 27.5% during the previous five years, and 32.9% during the five years before that.

Americans gone from their GDP growing more than twice as fast as their debt, to debt growing at nearly quadruple the speed of US GDP.

A train wreck is getting ready to happen and this train wreck is literally unstoppable.