SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Google has acquired two more startups to help the Internet search leader upgrade some of its services.
The latest catches announced Thursday are Katango, which helps people manage their online social networks, and Apture, which makes tools that conduct searches about the topics within a Web page.
Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Katango is a natural fit for Google’s Plus service, a 4-month-old social network that allows users to sort their friendships into different subsets that the company calls “Circles.”
Google believes Katango will make it easier for Plus’ more than 40 million users to organize their circles, based on a post by company executive Bradley Horowitz.
“Are you ready for some magic in your Circles?” Horowitz wrote about the Katango acquisition on his Google Plus account. “These folks are magicians!”
Apture already had been making its search tools available as a plug-in with Google’s Web browser, Chrome. When a browser equipped with Apture’s technology highlights a term within a Web page, it calls up a new window containing new information, pictures and video about the topic.
The acquisitions build upon a shopping spree that Google began nearly two years ago. Since 2009, Google has spent about $3.3 billion buying more than 105 companies. Within the next few months, Google hopes to complete the biggest deal in its 13-year history ? a proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of cell phone maker Motorola Mobility Inc.
