Google Wants to Index Your DNA, Too

clipped from www.businessweek.com The Web search giant’s investment in Navigenics is further proof it wants an early stake in direct-to-consumer genetic screening Your DNA falls into the realm of “the world’s information,” and it seems that Google (GOOG), as part of its corporate mission, is making a play to organize that, too. The Internet giant received heavy press in 2007 when it invested at least $4.4 million (BusinessWeek.com, 11/29/07) in a genetic screening company, 23andMe, that was started by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and her business partner. Much in the way it invested in 23andMe, Google wants to plant an early stake in a potentially large new market around genetic data. “We are interested in supporting companies and making investments in companies that [bolster] our mission statement, which is organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful,” Google spokesman Andrew Pederson says