Google buys blog tool developer

ToshiroOC · Feb 18, 2003, 05:08 AM

Internet search company Google will acquire Pyra Labs, the handful of Web developers who helped jump-start the personal publishing phenomenon known as blogging, Pyra's founder said Sunday.

Word of the deal spread after Pyra Labs Chief Executive Evan Williams confirmed on his personal Weblog that his team of six developers would join Google.

Weblogs, or blog for short, are a form of grassroots online diary publishing that give ordinary people with limited technical knowledge the ability to update personal Web sites. A blog consists of short, frequently updated postings that are arranged chronologically, highlighting the latest material.

For Google, which has become a household name for searching the Web, the move marks the privately held company's latest push beyond search and into publishing. Last fall, it launched Google News. Two years ago Google acquired Deja.com's Usenet, a massive archive of Web-based discussion groups.

A Google spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Monday and no statement was released on their site.

Williams called joining Google a "dream scenario," giving him access to what he wrote in his blog was "not just money, but (computer) servers, and bandwidth and traffic and the index, but (also) incredible brains."

Blogger.com, the flagship site of Pyra Labs, boasted in January that 1 million users had registered to use its Blogger software. Blogger offers a free, ad-supported version of its software and a $35 version for commercial publishers.

--By Reuters AP

Article can be read here.

Feb 18, 2003, 05:08 AM	#1
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	Google buys blog tool developer Internet search company Google will acquire Pyra Labs, the handful of Web developers who helped jump-start the personal publishing phenomenon known as blogging, Pyra's founder said Sunday. Word of the deal spread after Pyra Labs Chief Executive Evan Williams confirmed on his personal Weblog that his team of six developers would join Google. Weblogs, or blog for short, are a form of grassroots online diary publishing that give ordinary people with limited technical knowledge the ability to update personal Web sites. A blog consists of short, frequently updated postings that are arranged chronologically, highlighting the latest material. For Google, which has become a household name for searching the Web, the move marks the privately held company's latest push beyond search and into publishing. Last fall, it launched Google News. Two years ago Google acquired Deja.com's Usenet, a massive archive of Web-based discussion groups. A Google spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Monday and no statement was released on their site. Williams called joining Google a "dream scenario," giving him access to what he wrote in his blog was "not just money, but (computer) servers, and bandwidth and traffic and the index, but (also) incredible brains." Blogger.com, the flagship site of Pyra Labs, boasted in January that 1 million users had registered to use its Blogger software. Blogger offers a free, ad-supported version of its software and a $35 version for commercial publishers. --By Reuters AP Article can be read here.