Technology

Joint ventures are very common in todays business environment. Resources available to a company are limited and so to start a new project or to excel in new markets, joint ventures are used. Joint venture is defined as a strategic alliance between two people, companies or businesses in order to reap maximum benefits and the two parties involved share assets and knowledge as well. There are all sorts of business ventures for example two companies can join hands on a particular project or two companies can come together for many projects.

Google Inc. is a huge corporation that specializes in search engines. It was launched in 1998 and since then the company has become a huge success. Google has revived the concept of internet searching and the search engine of Google is considered the best. Google also earns great revenues from advertisements. The publisher system of Google is also very good. The ease with which a person can advertise through Google is simply amazing. People all around the world use Google search engine many times a day and it has become a part of our life. The user friendly browser has earned the management of Google great profits ( HYPERLINK httpentrepreneurs.about.combioScott-Allen-8965.htm Allen, n.d.).
Joint Ventures by Google

Google is a huge corporation and has resources like no other internet company. Many companies like to work with Google on different projects because of the scale of Google operations and the authenticity of the name of Google. Google itself is always searching for new ways to expand its business and is looking for new markets where it can expand. These joint ventures actually help the general public a lot because as a result of joint ventures new products and services are invented which would have been a dream for a single company. Many companies specialize in many different areas and thats why joint ventures take place.
A very interesting project that Google has started with the collaboration of Virgin Group is project Virgle. This is a joint venture that will send spaceships to mars and these space ships will have people who are willing to live on the planet mars. This project is a very futuristic approach by Google and it believes that there will come a time when the technology will allow us to visit and reside on the planet mars. The place on earth will finally be consumed and people will have to find new planets in order to sustain life (techblissonline.com, n.d).

This is a project which sounds weird and highly unrealistic but that is the whole point of Google Corporation that it sees future like no one. Who would have believed that a small internet company would grow up in a giant corporation like Google The search engine that Google made can help us with whatever information we want. We in 1990 also laughed at the idea of internet and other technologies but now we are using them in our day to ay life. Google made it possible and in my opinion Google will also make living on mars possible.

Google and Cleveland Clinic
Google has also started this joint venture with Cleveland clinic which is the first step of Google in the field of online health care. This will allow people and patients to get their hands on online medical journals and information easily and efficiently. The idea of the venture is to allow the patients to get hold of their own medical information and consult different doctors and medical care centers online. Google will earn great profits from this venture as it will allow Google to advertise a whole lot of medical and dental care services and profits (Silicon Valley  San Jose Business Journal, 2008).

Sprint, Clearwire and Google together
This is another joint venture of Google that involve many companies like Intel and Comcast. The aim is to provide next generation WiMax technologies to the users. This is also a very futuristic project where these giant companies are trying to bag the future markets. This joint venture is the best example of why joint ventures take place. All the companies involved are huge but they cannot do work, at this level, alone so they have collaborated with each other (Dignan, 2008).

Google is also getting its share in the internet broadband market and this is done without taking much risk. If Google will itself try to develop its own broadband company then it will be very difficult for the company to take to the level of 4 G technology. But by joint hands all these companies have made a smart move and are trying to gain as much profits as possible, at very little risk.

Google and GeoEye
This is another step taking by Google in order to provide its users with high quality images through Google earth. The GeoEye Company launched its satellite and this satellite will provide Google Earth customers with high resolution pictures along with the U.S government.  This can be termed as a joint venture as Google will be the only customer which will provide search mapping to its users. This is another example of how the company can improve its operations by joining hands with a specialist company. The quality of images that will be provided to Google Earth users will be great because the same satellite is also used by the United States Government. The speed with which technology is getting to the users is simply amazing and thats why joint ventures are a key in todays business environment and many companies around the world are doing this (reuters.com, n.d).

Microsoft Google Joint Venture
A joint venture by Microsoft and Google known as Google books is an example of how a strong party can easily come out of trouble, profitably. Google books was criticized of scanning books online and making it available for all the users. Google came up with a great solution and it made a deal with Microsoft which will give Google monopoly over all the books that are available on the World Wide Web. In this way Google can show brief excerpts of many books without getting in the copyrights problem. This deal is also criticized as many believe that it was not a settlement but an illegal merger (Koman, 2009).

Conclusion
From all of the above venture examples you will identify that the maximum beneficiary was Google. Google has this monopoly over many internet and search engines and advertising business that many companies cannot do anything about it. Most companies will have to give in to the demands of Google. Google is also expanding its job market with remarkable efficiency and gaining profits that are unmatchable.

Google is trying to make it invincible form all the competition that exists in the industry and Google is successful in all these efforts. The general public also benefits from these ventures as people are getting amazing products and services at a cheap price because of these collaborations. Companies are now getting over their egos and are talking and working with arch rivals in order to save themselves with competition. This is also a way to survive in the ever growing industries.