Google buys Jaiku; more mobile plans revealed

Web giant Google said Tuesday that it has snapped up Jaiku, a Helsinki-based presence sharing service, creating further inroads into the mobile space.

Jaiku, founded by Finns Jyri Engestrom and Petteri Koponen in 2006, is a micro social network, much like Twitter. Users have options to update their status and location and broadcast this info to the rest of the community.

Naturally, the service works on mobiles as well as the web, potentially giving some clues as to why Google is interested in the platform. On a Symbian S60 handset, Jaiku Mobile integrates with the address book, allowing the user to view the latest Jaiku status updates and presence of their friends direct from the contact list.

Jaiku users can not just share their availability but also their location and calendar, which obviously gives opportunity for integration with Google services and could also give Google a hook into the location based advertising space.