Google’s First Acquisition : Deja News / Google Groups

This year marked Google’s 100th acquisition.  Amazing to think the search engine giant has acquired over 100 companies in the last 10 years.  Even more surprising was the first company Google acquired back in 2001.  The company was Deja.  According to Wikipedia, Google acquired Deja on February 12, 2001.  Molding their Deja News Usenet search engine into Google Groups.  Here’s the Google Deja News press release.

Google Groups provides two types of groups.  One being traditional Usenet newsgroups and the other non-Usenet groups.  If you want to create your own group then non-Usenet is your only option.  The non-Usenet groups can be created as public or private.  They offer mailing list features along with the ability to create web pages, share documents and allow member comments.  Google Groups is web-based making it easy to access but doesn’t offer the enhanced features of some newsgroup readers.

Here are some more interesting Google acquisitions through the years:

  • Deja – February 12, 2001
  • Android – August 17, 2005
  • YouTube – October 9, 2006
  • DoubleClick – April 13, 2007
  • Motorola Mobility – August 15, 2011 (pending approval)
  • Visit Wikipedia for the full list of Google acquisitions.

Google has been quite busy acquiring companies in the social media, online advertising and coupon spaces.  Most recently acquiring Zagat, the restaurant review site for $125 million earlier this week.

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