Google celebrated their first year as a PLC on Thursday, and announced plans to raise $4 billion in shares for “general corporate purposes and possible acquisitions”. I’m no financial analyst, but that’s a hell of a lot of money.

Rumours abound that they are looking to put their fingers in all sorts of pies - everything from Skype, a popular VoIP app to broadband and telecoms ventures - to add to their already growing array of projects. Their quarterly profit pretty much quadrupled this year, mainly thanks to their very successful advertising ventures.

Recent hearsay has also pointed towards a Google online music store, with Apple’s iTunes, but that is very unconfirmed indeed.