Google buys solar-powered drone maker Titan Aerospace Internet search giant Google has bought US high-altitude drone maker Titan Aerospace for an undisclosed sum. Google said the acquisition was intended to help the firm's efforts to expand internet access.Titan Aerospace, which is building two types of solar-powered drones that can fly for years, says it expects "initial commercial operations" by 2015.The firm, which has about 20 employees, will continue to be based in Moriarty, New Mexico."It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation," Google said in a statement. "It's why we're so excited to welcome Titan Aerospace to the Google family."Google's purchase follows Facebook's announcement earlier this year that it had bought UK-based drone maker Ascenta for $20m (£12m).The two firms are competing to be able to use cutting-edge technology, like drones and high-altitude balloons, to deliver internet to more of the world's population.

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Social media's latest trendsettersGoogle Inc. on Monday acquired a maker of solar-powered drones—a startup that Facebook Inc. had also considered acquiring—as the technology giants battle to extend their influence and find new users in the far corners of the earth. Google didn't disclose the purchase price for New Mexico-based Titan Aerospace, which is developing jet-sized drones that are intended to fly nonstop for years. ar drone 2 onderdelenGoogle said the technology could be used to...ar drone gps flight recorder manual Kim Jong Nam's Son Speaks Out on Father's Killing The Dirty Little Secrets of Customer Service Range Rover Velar Debuts at the Geneva Motor Show ‘Hockey Hair’ Videos Boost Minnesota High-School Tournament Poachers Kill a Rhino at French Zoo for the HornThe technology company announced Monday that it has acquired Titan Aerospace, a start-up founded in 2012 that makes high-altitude, solar-powered drones.

The purchase is part of the new push in Silicon Valley to find ways of delivering Internet service to underserved areas, particularly in the developing world. "Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world," Google said. "It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation." The Titan team will operate separately from Google, but will collaborate with divisions including Google Maps and Project Loon, which has been working on delivering Internet service from high-altitude balloons. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Titan touts a variety of applications for its drones, including data delivery, crop monitoring and search-and-rescue aid. The vehicles can stay aloft for up to five years without having to land or refuel, making them an intriguing possibility for beaming out Internet service.

Titan has showcased its drones in demo flights, though they're not yet commercially available. The purchase marks the latest salvo in the tech cold war between Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB). Facebook looked into purchasing Titan at one point as well, according to various reports. The company recently hired several key staff members from U.K. drone maker Ascenta to join its "Connectivity Lab," which is experimenting with Internet delivery using experimental technology including drones, satellites and lasers. Both Facebook and Google have made a number of recent bets on emerging technologies, aiming to stay nimble once their current businesses are disrupted. Facebook made a splash earlier this year with its $19 billion purchase of mobile messaging service WhatsApp, and scooped up virtual-reality firm Oculus VR last month for $2 billion. Google, in turn, has invested billions in driverless cars, wearable gadgets, military robots and -- most recently through its purchase of Nest -- connected home devices such as smoke detectors and thermostats.

Technology companies are expanding beyond the Net and taking to the skies -- literally, with solar-powered drones that will beam broadband Internet access to the developing world, which houses growing numbers of newly minted Web users these companies want desperately to get their hands on.Facebook recently purchased Ascenta, a UK-based startup that makes solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- or simply called drones -- for $20 million. Now, Google has entered the fray, purchasing drone maker Titan Aerospace for an undisclosed sum, according to a posting on Titan's now barebones Web site: "We're thrilled to announce that Titan Aerospace is joining Google." In fact, Google scooped up the roughly 20-person startup, based in New Mexico and headed up by former Symantec CEO Vern Raburn, after it was widely reported that Facebook was interested in buying it. Raburn will stay in charge of Titan Aerospace, Google told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the acquisition. His team will work closely with Google's Project Loon, the outlandish initiative -- born out of Google's in-house "moon shot" facility Google X that brought us Glass and the self-driving car -- to deliver Internet via air balloon.

The drone company says it expects "initial commercial operations" to start in 2015. Titan Aerospace, similar to Facebook-owned competitor Ascenta, is developing two insect-like drones -- the smaller of the two with a wingspan a tad larger than a Boeing 767 -- with wing-mounted solar panels that will power the aircraft's batteries to keep it afloat at night. The aircraft, which will fly as high as 12 miles in the sky, are expected to have a long-term aerial lifespan of five years. The drones' primary function will be to help send Internet to places without a current connection at speeds as high as 1 gigabit per second, which -- matching the speeds of fiber-delivered Internet -- outranks many developed countries. The US averages only 7.2 megabits per second as of 2014, according to the most recent Akamai "State of the Internet" report.Titan Aerospace also will be outfitting its drones with imaging technology that could bolster the efforts of other Google initiatives like Maps. This includes high-resolution imaging of the Earth, alongside atmospheric sensors and other satellite-provided cellular functions like data and voice call connection."

It's still early days for the technology we're developing," in particular "atmospheric satellites," Titan said on its Web site. "There are a lot of ways that we think we could help people, whether it's providing Internet connections in remote areas or helping monitor environmental damage like oil spills and deforestation."Beyond the seemingly humanitarian-geared goals of creating a satellite network of drones lies the next big technology arms race: turning the citizens of developing countries all over the world into not only active Web users, but consumers of products from the very same companies bringing them online. Google has Android and its slew of low-cost handsets that run on it to help in that effort, while Facebook has been working to make its social network function in areas of limited data connectivity by creating a text-only version. For Facebook, the plan is to ultimately create more users of its social network. For Google, it's a more visible cycle of creating new users of its products and services and search engine, which drives advertising revenue that gets funneled back into projects like Loon that facilitate greater access to the Internet that, in turn, creates new users in the Google ecosystem.