Google Buys Video Conferencing Software

April 24, 2007: Google has announced that it will be adding video conferencing to its growing portfolio of applications, after acquiring software from the Swedish firm Marratech.

It seems like every week now Google is announcing either a new application for its growing arsenal or a new acquisition for its growing business. This time though, it hasn’t picked up the company completely, just the video conferencing software and the team behind it.

“As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration,” wrote Douglas Merrill, VP Engineering on the Google blog. “So we're excited about acquiring Marratech's video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.”

Interestingly, Marratech’s software is desktop-based rather than being a hosted service. This combined with the low-key nature of the announcement raises questions about whether or not the software will eventually become another piece of Google’s online suite.

Despite this, the deal does look like it will bring Google into close competition with the likes of Cisco’s WebEx, Adobe Connect and Microsoft Livemeeting. However, as Google has not specified whether the new application will be free or no makes it hard to measure just how much of a threat it will pose.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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