Whos next is Google's sites

They have the money, they have the motive so who should google buy next?

A post on Kuro5hin has prompted a string of one-offs, including this pieceby Chris Richardson and this one by Greg Sterling.

A list of candidateswas put up by Philipp of Google Blogoscoped, but many of the names seem to be missing the mark on Google's primary M.O. In our experience, they typically acquire:

1. A small, relatively unknown company with an emerging technology such as Dodgeball
2. A company that addresses a failed attempt, such as Urchin Analyticsfor cross-engine campaign management
3. A company that improves on an existing offering, such as Keyhole
4. A company that offers a specific knowledge that will allow them to enter a market, such as Blogger

Who will they acquire? Tough to say. Many have talked about TiVo, but it's hard to imagine Google going after the headaches inherent in such a big acquisition. Maybe another PVR company. Odeo may make a good candidate, as would Vonage, though speculation on that is old news.

Whatever happens, this kind of talk is what makes our job fun. Oh yea, there was also a joke about Apple during one of our pre-post discussions. Good to see it made the Kuro5hin list, even if it was just an add-on in the 'shoulda acquired Google' section at the very end.

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