Today the search giant announced two acquisitions that make clear a strategy that, on the one hand, will integrate display ads for mobile devices and, on the other hand, will augment the call management and voicemail service that is Google Voice with a set of VoIP services that reach physical telephone instruments. The price tag? Google is reportedly paying $750 million for mobile advertising aggregator AdMob and something on the order of $30 million for Gizmo5 (previously known as the Gizmo Project).
Greg Sterling provides his assessment of the AdMob acquisition here. Meanwhile, in the spirit of recombinant telephony, I’d like to riff on the “Singularity” that results from splicing together Google’s new strong suits, “profile and identity management” with platforms that support every day activities, like Web search, instant messaging and fielding phone calls. Given that a growing percentage of those calls originate or terminate on mobile devices, the two acquisitions are clearly an effort to strengthen Google’s mobile offerings. As Michael Arrington at TechCrunch points out, Gizmo5 gives Google a more elegant way to integrate Google Talk (which is essentially multimodal chat) with Google Voice (which is enhanced telephony). As Greg Sterling points out, AdMob brings a much better inventory of mobile display ads to market. In combination (or re-combination) they improve Google’s prospects for offering free, advertiser-supported mobile communications services.
Since these purchases come on the heels of what appears to be a successful launch of the Droid, in conjunction with Verizon and Motorola, it appears that Google is not afraid that its expanded activities in free, ad-supported telephony will sour a burgeoning relationship with Verizon Wireless. But once users experience the ease with which they can initiate search, chat, originate a phone call and navigate their autos in the real world using their voice, for free, without going through telco pay gates, all bets are off.
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