One Big, Happy Internet Family

When we talk of the World Wide Web, the use of names like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft is inevitable. These three giant corporations are easily the most ubiquitous of the millions of entities entangled in this web. They are growing, and how! Whether it is a web portal, or software technologies, these companies have made acquisitions left, right and centre.

Shelving out billions every year, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have made sure that no other company manages to topple them from the top three positions they have held on to for ages now. Don't believe me? Check out this list of prominent acquisitions made by these three companies in the last decade.

Google
Founded by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the year 1998.

• Picasa (2004)
• Stake in AOL (2005)
• YouTube (2006)
• Postini (2007)
• FeedBurner (2007)
  

Yahoo
Founded by Stanford University students Jerry Yang and David Filo in the year 1994.

• GeoCities (1999)
• Overture (2003)
• del.icio.us (2005)
• Flickr (2005)
• BuzzTracker (2007)
  

Microsoft
Founded by Harvard graduate Bill Gates in the year 1978.

• Vermeer Technologies (1996)
• Hotmail (1997)
• DesktopStandard Corporation (2006)
• Parlano (2007)
• Jellyfish.com (2007)
  

Apart from these acquisitions, these companies have, time and again, developed or founded their own web applications for users worldwide. It won't be an understatement to say that every second website or web programme available on the web is a part of this one big, happy Internet family!