Google, the search giant, has successfully used acquisitions, both large and small, to enter new markets and amplify its product portfolios.

Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google was initially incorporated as a privately held company. A chain of innovative products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine, have caused rapid growth for Google. 

In the past decade, beyond search, the company has also expanded its footprints into other areas like consumer video, social networking, mobile device (Google Nexus smartphone)  and advertising technologies. 

Tracking the last year’s journey of Google, it has found, Google has spent nearly $2 billion on total of 79 acquisitions in year 2011. Most of Google's 2011 acquisitions were targeted at enhancing its local business and commerce search efforts.  Let’s check out Google’s five biggest acquisitions of the last decade.  

Motorola Acquisition: Google has recently completed its $12.5 billion deal to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. The latest Motorola deal is Google's largest ever. As a matter of concern, it is found; Motorola acquisition is nearly four times larger than the previous high deal

It is believed; the latest deal between Google and Motorola will boost Google's competitive edge in the mobile device market as well as give search engine’s access to Motorola's range of Android powered offerings. This way, the deal is likely to be beneficial for both the companies.

Apture, Katango: Search giant Google Inc has acquired two startup firms, Apture and Katango in November 2011. The acquisitions are likely to help Google to enhance user’s experience for its browser and social networking services. However, Google has not revealed financial terms of the deals, officially.

AdMob: In a move to push ahead in this fast-growing market, Google has paid $681 million in stock to buy AdMob in May, 2010. To the reader’s surprise, the AdMob purchase occurred days after a long investigation made by Federal Trade Commission. 

DoubleClick: Google bought an online advertising services provider for $3.2 billion in 2008 which offers online ad serving and management technology to advertisers, web publishers and ad agencies. This acquisition helped Google to offer more dynamic, multimedia ads besides the short text links that appear next to its search results.

YouTube: YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.76 billion in 2006, is a video-sharing website, designed by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, which allows users to upload, share and view their video clippings.

Analysts believe, YouTube is now one of Google's key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue other than its traditional Internet search advertising business.

With its aggressive acquisition approach, Google has made its mark in nearly all fields. Seems, Google is all set to rule the tech industry.