Google gets personal

Search engine giant Google has bought a stake in a biotechnology company co-founded by one of its bosses. Set up by Anne Wojcicki, who recently married Google co-founder Sergey Brin, California-based 23andMe uses new genotyping technologies to help consumers explore their genetics, informed by cutting-edge science.

The company has apparently received a £1.97 million ($3.9 million) investment from Google, alongside a number of other firms including New Enterprise Associates and Genentech. 23andMe co-founder Linda Avey said that the achievement of the funding milestone ‘enables us to move forward with our core mission of connecting people with their genetic information’.

As for Wall Street-listed Google, led by chief executive Eric Schmidt, it believes personal information could prove a key avenue for future growth and expansion. ‘The algorithms will get better,’ Schmidt was reported as saying recently, ‘and we will get better at personalisation.’ Google recently launched a service called iGoogle, which enables consumers to publish their own content on a personalised Google homepage and the 23andMe investment follows the recent acquisition of internet advertising network Doubleclick for £1.6 billion.