Google has been the king of acquisitions for years. They constantly buy new companies with novel ideas and use them to further their technological goals. I realize the connotation of that sentence could be taken negatively… but it should not be. The fact that Google takes smaller companies and gives them the opportunity to improve themselves and Google as a whole, especially with all their resources. What Google has done here is that they purchased a very new company (about five months old) called SlickLogin in order to help improve and modernize their standard two-step verification process that traditionally involved having you log in normally with a password and then sending a verification code to your phone, which you then entered into the computer to confirm it is you. SlickLogin was working on a new process that would utilize sound as a verification process. What would happen is that the computer would resonate a unique frequency through the speakers that would be nearly undetectable by human ears. Then, you would hold up your phone to the computer so that the microphone could detect the sound and would verify it with the servers from them, sending a signal that verifies the user’s identity and completing the log in process.
SlickLogin was purchased by Google, but we still do not know exactly how much they paid for them. It will be interesting to see what Google does with this start-up firm, and to see just how they advance password verification processes. Of course, there are some concerns that Google will need to address. Both this method and Google’s standard method relied on you having your phone on you, which could allow someone, in the worst case scenario, to take your identity if they have your phone. Of course, that’s just playing devil’s advocate, as since by the point they would need to worry about that, they already have your log in ID and password, which is a terrible thing. Regardless, SlickLogin is facing a very exciting time for their company. Being bought by the Mountain View search giant, especially when they are that young of a company, is definitely an exciting prospect. What do you think? Will Google be able to utilize this technology well? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!