Google expands into Blogging

February 16, 2003

The world is certainly changing. A few years ago the headline above would make no sense at all.

Google is suddenly expanding into the world beyond search engines and searching. The company has bought Pyra, a company known for its blogging software. Blogging -- or more correctly Web logging -- has become an increasingly important feature on the Internet. Thousands of enthusiasts have established Web logs where they inform their readers about their of interest. Web logs are known for their personal style, and functions as gateways to the rest of the Web.

Pyra's business blogging software -- called, Blogger -- has more than 1.1 million registered users, out of which 200.000 runs active blogs. Does it make any sense for Google to do this? Blogger is getting a little long in the tooth, and many users are abandoning the service for more efficient ones. The blogs are becoming an increasingly important factor in Google's search engine algorithm (blogs are often up to date, newsworthy sites), but that doesn't mean that you have to buy them or their technology in order to deliver high quality search results.

Diversification? Maybe, but the strength of Google has been the company's strong focus on what it knows best: searching. The competitor AOL is reportedly introducing blogging as a new service, but in spite of the fact that AOL is a search portal as well, Google cannot easily be compared to that huge Internet service provider.

Still, Google has been adding a lot of new features recently, Google News and Froogle comes to mind. So it could be that Google is actually trying to become a full-fledged portal. That can explain why Yahoo! bought Inktomi. Google is looking more like a competitor than a friendly ally.

Source: Silicon Valley.com

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