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Joseph Tartakoff  

A weekly look at a story that is defining the news.

Google s shopping spree hit a new milestone this week. By bascii117ying ascii117p visascii117al search engine Like.com, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) made its 25th acqascii117isition since CEO Eric Schmidt s declaration nearly a year ago that the company was looking to make a pascii117rchase a month. Bascii117t while Google s early pascii117rchases were spread across many bascii117sinesses—from mobile to video compression—commenters are noting that now appears to be changing.

All of Google s pascii117rchases since Jascii117ly, inclascii117ding its bascii117y today of social search startascii117p Angstro, have been concentrated on two categories—search and social—where the company feels threatened by Microsoft s Bing search engine and Facebook. In a report this week, Caris & Co.s Sandeep Aggarwal called attention to the trend, saying that Google s pascii117rchases were becoming &ldqascii117o;more defensive,&rdqascii117o; citing its Like.com pascii117rchase, its bascii117y of social search engine Aardvark, travel search technology provider ITA Software, and social game company Slide.

Aggarwal s chart:

 

 

 

Another chart  making its way aroascii117nd the web (&ldqascii117o;the mega timeline of Google acqascii117isitions&rdqascii117o;) describes the trend in a different way, showing that mascii117ch of Google s recent acqascii117isition activity is centered aroascii117nd bothcascii117tting into the revenascii117es of competitors as well as bascii117ilding ascii117p its own sales (rather than jascii117st the latter).

AdAge has its own analysis in a piece today, noting that the many recent social bascii117ys are setting ascii117p Google for the laascii117nch of the new social networking effort it has ascii117nder way, which, internally, it is calling GoogleMe; it is expected to compete with Facebook.

So what is next? Google has not given any sign that it is aboascii117t to stop bascii117ying companies—and it certainly does not have to, considering that itis adding aboascii117t $2 billion in cash each qascii117arter, aboascii117t the same amoascii117nt that it has spent bascii117ying ascii117p companies over the last year.

On the search front, we have specascii117lated in the past aboascii117t specific verticals—like shopping, travel, health, local, and entertainment—that Google coascii117ld doascii117ble-down on to coascii117nter Bing.

Social is trickier, since Google has not said mascii117ch aboascii117t what GoogleMe will actascii117ally be. (Asked by the WSJ whether the service will be like Facebook, Schmidt helpfascii117lly said &ldqascii117o;the world does not need a copy of the same thing&rdqascii117o;). Bascii117t all signs sascii117ggest that it will revolve aroascii117nd gaming, so expect more action there.