Google Acquires Dodgeball

The search giant has acquired Dodgeball.com, a free text-message service that lets users tell a list of their selected friends their location at any moment.

A user "checks in" at a given location, sending his or her location information to other Dodgeball-using friends who happen to be within a 10-block radius.

"As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken Dodgeball about a far as we can alone," Dennis Crowley, founder of the New York-based text messaging service, wrote on the company's Web site.

The brainchild of recent New York University graduates Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert, Dodgeball also offers a "crush" service that allows users to contact five people whom they are interested in.

When the crush walks within 10 blocks, they will be sent the user's location, a brief message saying who has a crush on them and a photo.

Google has become more than a simple search engine, tacking on services like e-mail, driving directions, maps and localized business directories.

And the company has used acquisitions to become more of a consumer lifestyle company, buying Picasa, a digital photo management company; Keyhole, a digital and satellite image mapping company, and now Dodgeball.com.

"Google has a clearly defined revenue stream, and that's online advertising. So anything to drive users to the site is positive for Google," said David Garrity, managing director at New York-based investment bank Caris & Co.

"You can argue that they're looking at the path Yahoo! has broken, and it's a good one to follow," said Garrity. "But you could also argue that Yahoo! is moving at a much more rapid pace and that Google has a lot of catching up to do."

To read the full article visit: CNN Money

http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/12/technology/google_dodgeball/index.htm

Date - 19 May 2005