Google goes for Jaiku
Jyri Engestrom and Petteri Kopone, the founders of mobile social network company Jaiku, have sold their company for a undisclosed amount to Google.
The Finns, who released the first version of their service in July 2006, developed a messaging service compatible with S60 phones that integrates with the social networking sites, meaning users can continually update their profile, status, and information in small mobile snippets.
Engestrom, who sees micro-blogging as the next disruptive internet application, will take his employees over to Google, which two years ago bought another mobile social networking company, Dodgeball.
Potential developments of the service could include adding a wider range of device support, as well as further integration with other apps and Google apps. All Google acquisitions at the moment are being scrutinised in terms of their potential use with the widely predicted Google phone, expected to be a low cost handset designed to support Google ads and applications.
New users will not be able to sign up until Google has released a new version of the service, although existing users will be able to keep using the service.
Google blogged about the announcement here.
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