Michael Koby

Earlier today, Ars Technica posted an article about Jaiku users exodus-ing to Twitter because Google’s apparent lack of caring, maintaining, and updating the service.  The comments to the post point to several other companies that Google has purchased and basically let die off.  Accusations abound stating that Google does this so that someone else won’t buy the service, or that Google has simply just purchased too many companies and does not have the resources to commit to the project.   One comment does point out that the majority of the development staff for Jaiku has been in the process of moving to Silicon Valley and is getting settled in at Google’s headquarters.  If there is any truth to that, there is very little mention of it.  Jaiku blogs, support, and news pages have been rather dead since the purchase was announced and the creator of the service, Jyri, has little mention of what exactly is going on with the service in the way of updates, timelines for going non-invite only, or even just letting people know that something is going on.  All is quiet on the western front, or so the song starts.  GrandCentral, another Google purchase hasn’t had much in the way of updates since it’s purchase either.

So, it stands to reason that not much is really going on with these Google purchased companies.  And if that is the case, why do they continue to purchase companies that they have zero intention of developing, expanding, or furthering along?  Why is Google consistently buying up companies and letting them rot away?  Is Google planning something big that keeps all of this in limbo until some big announcement?  Are they waiting until the end of the 700Mhz spectrum auction to announce some grand scheme where all these services that appear to be just sitting there are going to play a major role?  What exactly is going on in Google’s world in regards these companies and services?

I really wonder why it appears development has stopped on services like Jaiku and GrandCentral.  These are two awesome services that could really do something.  Jaiku is better than Twitter in many ways but there if a mass exodus continues there will be no users left by the time Google makes an announcement.  GrandCentral can really change how people use their phones, but the service seems to be in stalled from a development standpoint.

What is going on with these services and the others that Google has purchased and left alone?  Can we get an answer?  Even if it is just an update that says “hey, something is in the works, we’re just waiting on these things” anything is better than the radio silence that seems to have become synonymous with Google company company purchases.

Come on Google, give us something.

As you can tell from this morning’s post, I received a Jaiku invite.

Jaiku is a Twitter like service that was acquired by Google in October of 2007.  I was interested in trying out Jaiku for several reasons:

1. I want to try all the Twitter like services to see how they all compare to each other, this includes finding where one might be better than the other
2. I’m a Google-holic.  I like Google and Google products a lot.  I work with my radio co-hosts in Google Docs, use Gmail, Google Notebook, and my wife and I talk on our cell phones using Google Talk.  Google will probably integrate several of these various products they have acquired over the last several months and it might be good to keep everything in one place rather than spread around multiple web sites and logins.

What I Like About Jaiku

So, my first general impressions on Jaiku are good.  I think the service is on the right track.  It is pretty much a copy of Twitter with a couple of features that I think I will enjoy greatly.  The first seems to be the ability to attach RSS feeds to your “presence” (what Jaiku calls your “time line”).  So as the RSS feed gets updated, it posts to your Jaiku feed in a nice user friendly, easily readable manner.  This means you can add your Twitter’s user feed to have it update your Jaiku.

The second is rather small but I think adds a small personal touch and that would be the ability to “icon” a post.  So you can attach a related icon to the post.  For instance if you got hurt, and you post something like “Fell down doing a gnarly move on my board” you can attach the “Band-Aid” icon.  Great way to give a visual representation to your posts.  However, I understand that this is small and not really a “feature” but I thought it was something nifty.

Something that Jaiku has that Pownce probably took from them is the “Channels” functionality.  Essentially you can create a channel, and people can join it.  Then you can send updates to a specific channel to update all those that are a part of the channel.  A great way to separate groups and update types.

What I See Missing From Jaiku

The first thing I notice missing is a way to search your address book on your Yahoo! or Gmail accounts, allowing you to easily find friends who might already have the service.  Instead you have to search by name and groups.  Not a great way to find people.

Also the fact that the service changed into an invite only service when Google acquired it, makes it hard to get people onto the service more quickly.  So the growth seems to be stagnated due to the lack of accessibility.  This however, will probably be fixed within the next 6 months or so (just a guess).

Overall

I think Jaiku is well on its way to being a nice Twitter competitor.  It seems to handle some of the features people wish Pownce did, or at least did better.  I wish there was more recent information on the service though as the company’s blog has not been updated since the Google acquisition in October.  It would be nice to know what is in the works and when we can expect changes (if any are forth coming).

So over the Christmas holidays, Google added a feature to Google Reader that caused some privacy concerns.  While I’m not sure why everyone was in such a fit about it, because the feature was in fact called “Shared Items” so I don’t understand how that could be mis-interpreted.

But now there are rumors that Google is going to implement a Facebook News like feed for your Gmail contacts.  Many people are comparing this to both Facebook and Plaxo (a contact management website that allows you to sync your contacts and ask them update their contact info).  Plaxo is taking a little more heat for it’s Plaxo pulse which allows you to add things like your blog, your Flickr account, Twitter, and even your Amazon Wishlist to the pulse and have it send out updates to your contacts.  Why Plaxo is taking the hit for this, again I do not understand.  For one thing you have to actually opt-in for the service and two your friends have to “connect” with you to receive your pulse updates.  So both sides have to opt-in for it to work.

Now there is no word on if there is going to be an “opt-out” switch on this new Gmail contact news like feed, but I’m sure there will be.  But what has me a little annoyed is everyone freaking out about Google with regards to their data.  First off, Google has done very little (if anything) that is considered “evil” with your data.  Secondly, if you actually read the terms of service on several Google products you’d be surprised what they might be allowed to someday do.  By simply using Google products you are allowing them to look at and possibly use any data they can off of you.  Heck, Google does read your email but only so it can show Adsense ads that go along with what the email your reading is about.

Google pretty much controls the internet.  If you are like me, and use their products, they probably have a good amount of data on you.  Does this mean they are going to spread it out all over the internet?  Not really.  I think people are making a big deal about nothing with these issues.  Especially in comparing Google to Plaxo.  Plaxo’s terms of service is really creepy, more so than any of Google’s.  If you are really worried about what companies are going to be doing with your data, then you should start reading the terms of service and license agreements more frequently.  You might find out that you really just shouldn’t be storing personal data on the internet.

According to a recent study shows that over ninety percent of people have not heard of Google Docs or other online office suites.  And with that knowledge I have to ask…

Why is the news?

The average internet user is not aware of about 1/3 of the stuff online regulars are informed about and this somehow requires the blogosphere and other online journalists to cause a bug hubbub?  I’m confused.  To be honest, the only reason my wife is aware of things like Google Docs, Open Office, Twitter, Facebook, and other online sites is because I personally told her about them.  It seems to me people doing the ever so usual, much ado about nothing.

Now, a lot of people are looking at this as the death of Web 2.0 office suites, I ask when did anyone claim that online office suites were going to take mass market share away from Microsoft Office.  Certainly not me and every review of an online office suite I have read usually states something about it not being ready to take the place of Office.

Really folks, can we stop making “news” out of something that isn’t really news?  Or is that just the nature of the beast that is the internet?