Google: Europe Acquisition, Domains, Visiting Base Users

Time to give you a little update on Google’s moving and shaking as of late:

1. Google has acquired Endexon, a European geo-mapping company which will provide Google with an excellent European base of operations for their map products in that marketplace.
2. Google is now helping users get setup with Google Apps for Your Domain by providing a domain purchase option within the setup area. Here is the press release and a snippet that sums it all up: Starting today, we’re partnering with eNom and GoDaddy.com, two industry leaders in domain registration, to offer users without a domain an easy way to find, register, and buy a domain and start immediately using our services. When you register a new domain as part of the sign-up process for Google Apps for Your Domain, we’ll work with our partners behind the scenes and automatically configure everything so it works with all of the services available through Google Apps for Your Domain right out of the gate. We also give you full control of your domain settings, so you can use your domain for other services not provided by Google.
3. Google Base users are invited to provide feedback to the Google Base Team. In fact, in this December 6th post on the Official Google Base Blog, Google made a bold offer to send a team member to your place of business so they can observe how you work with the Base system, get your feedback, and aid with any issues you may have. According to the blog the visits started yesterday and continue today in London (UK, I presume). I have no idea if they will be in your area next so try dropping them a note if you are interested. The particulars for participating are found on the post.
4. According to the Google Operating System Blog (an unofficial tips site – great reading) there has been sightings of two new search methods being added to the “More” link on the Google home page. The first to be added was an option to only search blogs, the second was a “patent” search option which would allow users to search the US patent database which has patent information from as far back as the 1790’s. Here is a direct link to the patent search home page which was added as a new search section within Google around December 14th.