March 14, 2006

Google has acquired a 3D modeling software developer that teamed up with it to make a plug-in for Google's desktop service.

Financial details were not disclosed, nor were there any indication as to Google's plans for @Last's sole product called SketchUp, which enables people to model design concepts in 3D.

The tools are meant for a general audience, not just design professionals, and include a plug-in for Google Earth that was released this year.

In a posting to customers on @Last's Web site, Brad Schell, co-founder of the 7-year-old, Boulder, Colo., company, said it would continue to develop and sell SketchUp, which costs $495.

"Google's resources will allow us to serve our current users better, and Google's reach will allow us to expose more people to SketchUp in one year than we could have touched in 10 years on our own," Schell said.

"'3D for Everyone' is becoming a reality; we're bringing the '3D' part; Google's contributing the 'Everyone.'"

Discussions of an acquisition started when the companies worked together this year on the Google Earth plug-in, Schell said. "It quickly became apparent that we could really stir things up together."

No details were given as to what Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., intends to do with @Last's technology, but Schell hinted that more would be done with Google Earth.

"We do not have any announced plans regarding the integration of this technology with current Google products and services, but we can say that we’re tired of all those grey boxes in Google Earth," he said.

@Last's headquarters would remain in Boulder, and it would continue to have offices in Munich and London, Schell said. The company's name, however, would change to Google, but the product would still be sold as SketchUp.

The acquisition was the second for Google this month. The company bought startup Writely, an online word processing service that allows users to store and work with text documents on the Web.

Google has declined to discuss its integration plans for Writely, which places the search engine in direct competition with Microsoft Corp.'s plans to eventually make all its software, including Office, available as a Web service.

Source: Tech Web

Increase your site traffic with a paid inclusion program

Read Serge Thibodeau's daily blogs on search engines at Serge Thibodeau Live. We strongly suggest you bookmark our web site by clicking here.

Get your business or company listed in the Global Business Listing directory and increase your business. It takes less then 24 hours to get a premium listing in the most powerful business search engine there is. Click here to find out all about it.

Rank for $ales strongly recommends the use of WordTracker to effectively identify all your right industry keywords. Accurate identification of the right keywords and key phrases used in your industry is the first basic step in any serious search engine optimization program. Click here to start your keyword and key phrase research.

You can link to the Rank for Sales web site as much as you like. Read our section on how your company can participate in our reciprocal link exchange program and increase your rankings in all the major search engines such as Google, AltaVista, Yahoo and all the others.

Home | SEO Tips | SEO Myths | FAQ | SEO News | Articles | Sitemap | Contact

---

Copyright © Rank for Sales.    Terms of use    Privacy agreement    Legal disclaimer

       Ce site est disponible en Français