Google’s getting sketchier and for once it’s a good thing.
The search giant announced earlier this week that it has purchased @Last Software, makers of the popular 3D modeling program SketchUp.
This is the second acquisition in less than a week for the Big G, late last week it announced the acquisition of Upstartle, a company with its roots in web-based word processing.
Financial terms of the SketchUp deal have not been disclosed.
These types of acquisitions are happening more and more often and its seems to some that they’re the only way for small companies to ensure long-term viability in the shadow of big portals like Yahoo and MSN.
Gartner analyst Allen Weiner agrees in this InformationWeek article:
“I don’t see how a lot of these smaller niche vendors are going to survive. They’re going to have to be swallowed up by the bigger companies in the food chain.”
On an …ummm…’fluffier’ note, some folks are using Google Video to launch a mock American Idol style competition. Phillip Lenssen explains.
