CEO Larry Page has built a reputation for making quick decisions to help his company compete in various markets. This week, Page decided to bet on two start-ups to help Google compete with Facebook and Firefox.
On Thursday, Google confirmed that it is purchasing Palo Alto social networking firm Katango and San Francisco browser technology startup Apture. Similar to Circles, Katango helps social networkers group contacts.
"Very excited to confirm that we've just acquired Katango!" Google vice president of Products Bradley Horowitz wrote on Google+. "In the earliest days of Google+, I alluded to the fact that we had big plans for Circles. Are you ready for some magic in your Circles? These folks are magicians!"
Happy VCs
Kleiner Perkins took a chance on Katango. The startup was KP's first to benefit from KP's $250 million social media fund. Katango is the brainchild of a group of Stanford PhDs with deep roots in artificial intelligence. They've applied their theoretical learning to create a complex algorithmic solution to a very real problem: organizing and sorting through a flood of contacts and content social networks generate.
"Katango was founded a little over a year ago to develop social algorithms that improve people's online social interaction," the firm wrote in a notice on its web site. "We're excited to join the Google+ team and carry on fulfilling that mission. Google+ is seeing tremendous momentum, so it's a perfect time to join and make Circles smarter for millions of people."
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at The Enderle Group, sees the Katango acquisition as a necessary move for Google. The lack of interest from Google execs and lack of investment into the product has troubled him given what's at stake. Google failed with its Buzz social network 
offering.
"Google Chairman Eric Schmidt didn't bother to join Google+ until recently. This was Google's high profile fight against Facebook and it seemed that they fundamentally didn't care," Enderle said. "Now Google is starting to invest in it again. We'll see if isn't too little too late."
A Multimedia Chrome?
Enderle feels better about Google Chrome. According to Netmarketshare, Chrome is in third place with 17.6 percent, after Microsoft 's Internet Explorer with 52.6 percent and Firefox with 22.5 percent. Apture could help Chrome turn even more heads.
Founded in 2007, Apture works to transform flat web pages into interactive multimedia experiences. With Apture technology, readers can readers to see and hear the ideas on the page.
"After enhancing more than a billion pages with our products, we think now is the best time to expand our efforts with another team just down the road that shares our vision of making the web better," the Apture team wrote in an announcement on its web site. "That's right -- we've been acquired by Google and will be joining the Chrome team to continue driving innovation and creating a better user experience on the web."
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