Google Buys Jaiku

The Twitter-like service from Finland, Jaiku, has been purchased by search engine behemoth, Google.

My first thought after finding out about this was, “why?” Google doesn’t really need a micro-blogging platform, and if they were going to purchase one, why take what most people consider to be the second best or third best, at least in popularity.

Some people are saying this is just one of many mobile phone related services that Google is either buying or building to increase their market penetration in the cell phone, iPhone, connected devices market.

It will be interesting to see how much they paid for the service, as it will most likely add credence to the continuing growth of the Web 2.0 bubble that has been mentioned increasingly more often.

Here is the blog post on Jaiku’s home page about the acquisition:

Wonderful Jaiku users,
Exciting news, Jaiku is joining Google!

While it’s too soon to comment on specific plans, we look forward to working with our new friends at Google over the coming months to expand in ways we hope you’ll find interesting and useful. Our engineers are excited to be working together and enthusiastic developers lead to great innovation. We look forward to accomplishing great things together. In order to focus on innovation instead of scaling, we have decided to close new user sign-ups for now.

But fear not, all our Jaiku services will stay running the way you are used to and you will be able to invite your friends to Jaiku. We have put together a quick Q&A about the acquisition.

Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen, Jaiku Founders

Do you Jaiku? Have your say about Google buying Jaiku in the comments.