Tag Archives: Recorded Future
thechromesource Daily: Links for 7/29/10
Posted on 29. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
1 Comments
Internet Explorer 9 is sure starting to look a lot like Chrome browser.
An analysis by Business Insider on whether Google is still a growth company.
Does Google’s investment in Recorded Future actually have U.S. national security implications?
How many hundreds of million dollars is Google willing to spend battling Facebook?
Google is allowing designers to have more control over typography customizations.
It’s a Good Time to be a Startup That Interests Google
Posted on 10. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
Google has spent over $250 million on acquisitions just in the first quarter of 2010. From its purchase of video technology companies like On2 and Episodic to secretive semiconductor firm Agnilux they have been on a spending spree. And not to mention the Google Ventures subsidiary that was recently in the news for investing in the prediction business Recorded Future. In fact, Google Ventures expects to invest a total of $100 million in 10 separate companies this year.
Suffice to say, now more than ever is a great time to get the interest of Google if you’re a startup company. As CNET’s Tom Krazit reports, Google’s trend in buying companies in the first quarter were those that were small to the point of the search engine giant not even having to report the actual purchase price because it would be immaterial to their bottom line.
So the next time you hear about a company being purchased by Google without any monetary details that means that the organization was probably pretty small. And although that price may be tiny to Google, for startups that are small and living off of peanut butter sandwiches, it’s a very good amount of money.
Just being in the good graces of the Googleplex helps. Take their investment in TV advertising platform Invidi. For Google to do a deal with DISH Network selling television ads, they needed to guarantee to DISH that they would be able to fill the entire advertising inventory the satellite company gave them. Realizing that Invidi’s technology could help them, Google contacted the small company. Invidi was much obliged to help, once Google Ventures made an investment in the company.
So be Google’s friend. You never know when they actually will ask you for your assistance, especially if you can help them battle their rivals or otherwise advance the company into new markets.
Google Invests in Recorded Future
Posted on 04. May, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
The Google Ventures subsidiary has made an investment in a company called Recorded Future, and if the name of the company is not interesting enough, it’s what the company’s focus is that really makes you think. They are an analytics company that uses metrics to try to predict future events, whether they are stock market trends or terrorist attacks.
I’d like to include the generic weatherman joke to what Recorded Future does, since most meteorologists don’t get fired for being wrong on their predictions. But one thing that keeps popping up in my head is the fact that Google has certainly toyed with the idea of using their search data to leverage what is going on in the stock market. Eric Schmidt, while speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi in March:
This coupled with the fact that Google has been approved to trade in the U.S.’s regulated energy markets has to say something. Sure, the goal with that is to keep Google’s power costs down. But in the effort to “organize the world’s information”, does Google perhaps know too much? They likely do, but what needs to be focused on is how they utilize that information.
Until further notice, I believe in Google’s mission. They really have done something so different with their business it always stops and makes me think about how much better they have done in certain facets of the things that they do, and sometimes I wonder if anyone can really compete with them just because the bar is set so high.
I believe in free markets and if they can continue to do what their doing in an honorable way I’m all for it. Just don’t be surprised to hear the FTC is constantly investigating them because they feel the playing field is unfair.
With that being said, take a look at a rundown on what Google Ventures has invested in so far.
