Google Buys Jaiku. Twitterers Tweet About It

Posted on October 9, 2007

Google has acquired Jaiku. Jaiku is a microblogging and mobile blogging that competes with Twitter. Google probably wants Jaiku for its mobile features and there are rumors Google may use it with an upcoming Google phone. Google is also always on the lookout for more places to expands its advertising - they offer mobile advertising through AdSense/AdWords. Google is pretty vague about why exactly they bought Jaiku in their post about the purchase.

Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it's more difficult to keep track of everyone when they're running around at warp speed. That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Jaiku, a company that's been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most -- regardless of whether you're at a computer or on a mobile phone.
Current Jaiku users can still use the service normally, and new folks can sign up for an invitation to the service when we're ready to expand. We plan to use the ideas and technology behind Jaiku to make compelling and useful products. Although we don't have definite plans to announce at this time, we're excited about helping drive the next round of developments in web and mobile technology.

The purchase raises questions about why Google would purchase Jaiku and not the more popular Twitter? Was Twitter's asking price too high? That seems unlikely. Was there bad blood between Google and Twitter founder Evan Williams - who also founded Blogger? There are also concerns being raised that Jaiku could become another Dodgeball.

Ironically, a lot of the most interesting discussion about Google's purchase of Jaiku can actaully be found on Twitter, which currently has a more active community than Jaiku. As Dave Winer writes, "Today is Jaiku Day in TwitterLand."

The Google deal will probably encourage a lot more people to sign up for Jaiku. Oddly, Jaiku has put new signups on hold for now so people will have to wait.

There was so much discussion of Jaiku today on Twitter that there were calls for it to stop.