Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!: A year of acquisitions

How many companies did the web's big three--Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft--acquire in 2005? At least 26. SEO by the Sea has done his homework and written great analyses of Google's acquisitions (four in 2005) and Yahoo's (12!) and Read/WriteWeb rounds out the list with Microsoft's scant 10. Whose acquisitions were the smartest this year, and whose most brash? Yahoo! is certainly making some big waves and impressing the alpha geeks, while Google continues ot pursue mysterious strategies and Microsoft keeps doing its thing.