TechTheDay

Google has acquired two more companies this month to bolster its business and explore a new technology that is bound to benefit Internet connection. The Mountain View based tech company is set to enhance its leadership in the Internet industry with the acquisition two startups. The acquisitions were actually already undertaken days before but Google did not release any announcement regarding them. Notices were only posted on the respective websites of the acquired companies after the negotiations were already completed.

The two newly acquired companies being referred to here are MDialog and Alpental Technologies. Details about their purchase terms are scarce but some media outlets managed to obtain some useful bits that indicate the usual Google goal of enhancing its technological and business foundations.

MDialog

MDialog is a video advertising company with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario and San Francisco, California. It specializes in the management, delivery, and measurement of targeted video ads across IP-connected platforms. On the company’s website, they announced that they are joining the DoubleClick team at Google but they will continue to provide their services to programmers and distributors, and that there will be no immediate changes that will affect existing customers. Nevertheless, the company maintains that working with DoubleClick and Google will enable mDialog to create new and better ways to advertise.

The MDialog acquisition bolsters Google’s advertising business and, in the words of Google, “represents the latest of our ongoing investments in helping brands connect with high quality video content, like Google Partner Select.” To put things in perspective, Google purchased DoubleClick in 2007 for $3.1 billion. MDialog’s acquisition may not cost as much but it is a good decision to help Google in competing with the likes of YuMe, BlackArrow, Auditude, and FreeWheel. FreeWheel is an ad firm now owned by Comcast after the company acquired it earlier this year.

Alpental

If MDialog was meant to augment Google’s advertising business, Alpental is an acquisition aimed at exploring new Internet connection technology. It is one of Google’s attempts to venture into the unchartered waters of 5G. The acquisition does not necessarily mean that Google intends to build its own mobile network although the possibility of creating a Google mobile network cannot be completely disregarded. After all, Google bought Motorola to manufacture devices and compete with the multitude of other manufacturers that rely on the Android operating system.

Alpental is a company created by former ClearWire engineers Pete Gelbman and Michael Hart. It has developed a high-speed networking technology that makes use of the 60 GHz band, as revealed in a 2013 FCC document filed by the company. The 60 GHz band has been used to establish fast network connections between buildings miles away from each other. Speeds can reach up to 7 Gbps. Essentially, this technology makes it unnecessary to put up expensive optical lines underground or underwater.

The 60 GHz wave band being exploited by Alpental, at present, is practically useless for wide area networking. The WiGig standard uses this wave band but it is intended for wirelessly connecting devices in the same room or building, not for connecting mobile signal towers to mobile phones.

Google has not divulged any detail about its plans on how to make use of Alpental’s technology and expertise. It is not clear yet how Alpental will figure in Google’s plan in making the Internet more accessible to more people. Google already tried using balloon-based means. Perhaps Alpental’s R&D into higher capacity wireless connections can take the place or boost the Internet connections enabled by these balloons.

Effects on the Internet

It can be said that Google’s new buys would have effects on the Internet. MDialog means more ways to advertise, which is mostly a boon for businesses or advertisers. Advertising may be to the annoyance of most Internet users but it’s not that excessively irritating to disrupt the experience of browsing the web. On the other hand, Alpental is bound to make a good headway into 5G tech. With one major global company also working on 5G, in addition to the 5G standard creation efforts of South Korea and the European Union, building the 5G infrastructure should now be expedited. Additionally, having the influential Google getting involved in the establishment of 5G technology helps in reconciling the pros and cons of the proposed standards.

Acquisitions of smaller tech companies by giants is nothing new or unusual. It happens all the time. In fact, prior to the acquisition of these two companies, Google already shelled out monies to buy five other companies earlier this year. Let’s just hope Google finds a truly beneficial way of harnessing the capabilities and potentials of the companies it has recently bought.