Google announced on Monday that it would be acquiring Titan Aerospace, a startup that develops high-altitude, solar-powered drones. Titan Aerospace was previously courted by Facebook for a reported $60 million buyout, but it appears that Google struck first. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google did not divulge the price of the acquisition, but the search giant did say that the 20 or so employees of Titan will remain in their New Mexico location. CEO Vern Raburn will also continue to run the company. Google plans to ingratiate the Titan team with its own Project Loon, an undertaking which hopes to expand Internet coverage by building large, Internet-enabled balloons for areas of the world that are not yet online. “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,” a Google spokesman said in a statement. The Titan team claims that its drones could deliver speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, faster than most broadband connections in the United States and other developed regions.

The team hopes to begin “initial commercial operations” in 2015.ar drone 2 bilderGoogle is officially in the drone business. drone where to buyOn Monday, the search giant agreed to buy Titan Aerospace, a company that makes solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles.ar drone 2 altura maxima Last month, it was Facebook that was supposedly interested in snapping up Titan Aerospace for $60 million, but the deal never went through. google buys titan droneInstead, Facebook bought U.K.-based aerospace company Ascenta for $20 million. ar drone 2 ukWe look at why two of the world’s largest tech companies are competing over drones.ar drone 2 for sale south africa

Currently, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population does not have Internet access. That is a lot of people who can’t browse through Facebook profiles or do a Google search. Facebook’s solution to the problem? The company’s Connectivity Lab plans to “build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the Internet to everyone,” according to blog post from company CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Google seems to have the same idea, telling NBC News through a written statement that “atmospheric satellites could help bring Internet access to millions of people.” The company plans to pair the drones with the Internet-beaming balloons of Project Loon. What is Titan Aerospace? The New Mexico-based startup makes drones that fly at an altitude of 65,000 feet — high above commercial airplanes, which usually cruise at 35,000 feet to 39,000 feet above sea level. Titan Aerospace claims that its two solar-powered models, the Solara 50 and Solara 60, can fly for years without having to come down, providing the same coverage as 100 cellphone towers.

What else will Google do with these things? Google has not divulged much about the deal, including how much it spent for Titan Aerospace, but the Solara drones do boast the ability to provide high-quality images of the Earth in real-time. That means they could provide lots of valuable content for Google Maps. A company said in a statement that the drones could also help with “disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation.” Has Google created SkyNet from the "Terminator" movies?But considering the company’s purchase of eerily realistic robot-maker Boston Dynamics, a fleet of perpetually flying drones feeding Google live data is a pretty good start.Google has purchased high-altitude solar-powered drone builder Titan Aerospace as part of the search engine giant's efforts to bring internet access to remote areas of the world. Google snapped up the New Mexico company for an undisclosed fee, reportedly fending off rival Facebook which was also said to be interested in the company.

Titan Aerospace's website was blocked overnight and now carries a holding page with the Google logo and a short message."We're thrilled to announce that Titan Aerospace is joining Google. At Titan Aerospace, we're passionate believers in the potential for technology (and in particular, atmospheric satellites) to improve people’s lives," it said. "It's still early days for the technology we're developing, and 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."That’s why we couldn’t be more excited to learn from and work with our new colleagues as we continue our research, testing and design work as part of the Google family." Google is yet to comment on the acquisition but it feeds in well with Project Loon - the technology giant's plan to spread the internet around the world using balloons some 12 miles (20km) in the stratosphere above Earth.Both Facebook and Google have plans to expand the reach of the internet with high-tech web systems.

In February, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched an ambitious plan to bring internet infrastructure to five billion people. It is the second big buy-out in months by Google who purchased military robot-maker Boston Dynamics in December. Related Stories Google's Race To Lead Wearable Tech Future Google Buys UK Intelligence Firm DeepMind Dubai To Get Drone Deliveries 'Within A Year Drone Research Sites Selected By US Agency Google Inc. said Monday it agreed to buy Titan Aerospace, a startup maker of high-altitude drones, as the Internet search giant adds more aerial technology to collect images and get more of the world’s population online. Google didn’t disclose a purchase price for Titan, of Moriarty, N.M., whose solar-powered drones are intended to fly for years. Check out all the Circuit Playground Episodes! Our new kid’s show and subscribe! Have an amazing project to share? Join the SHOW-AND-TELL every Wednesday night at 7:30pm ET on Google+ Hangouts.