More mobile moves from Google
As if there isn’t enough rumour and speculation flying around about Google’s mobile activities already, the acquisition of Jaiku is more fuel on the fire.
First there was the acquisition of Zingku, giving Google a mobile focused social networking community, now Jaiku adds better status/presence functionality, perhaps paving the way for location based services and new advertising models. The cool thing about Jaiku is that you can see other users’ presence direct from your phonebook [on S60 devices] and the word is that you can also see location via nearest cell tower id.
What’s interesting is that Nokia seems to be following a similar track with its own Ovi platform. Whatever Google’s got planned, it looks like it’s going to shake up the market.
I think it is perfect fit for Google. Google can leverage it’s ad serving technology and add more granularity through location to Jaiku’s presence streams
It makes perfect sense: a relatively) fenced area, technologically advanced – the perfect testing ground – with minor risk for damage or risk in terms of size.