With acquisition, Google can get more video into its cloud - CNET

As video continues its conquest of our smartphones and other gadgets, Google has scooped up a firm that will let it offer content companies like NBC Universal tools for creating and publishing clips.

Google's Cloud Platform unit said this week that Anvato would be folded into its team. Anvato makes a software platform that "fully automates the encoding, editing, publishing and secure distribution of video content across multiple platforms," the Cloud Platform team said in a blog post.

Google's Cloud Platform offers hosting on the same infrastructure that Google uses for products like Google Search and YouTube, along with tools that let developers build everything from basic websites to complicated applications.

With video-streaming growing ever more popular, the Cloud Platform and Anvato teams will help media and entertainment firms "deliver high-quality, live video and on-demand content to consumers on any device -- be it their smartphone, tablet or coected television," the blog post says.

Anvato has counted Fox Sports, CBS Local Media, Bravo and the USA Network among its customers.