I saw this on Mashable — Why didn’t Google acquire Twitter instead of Jaiku?
Link: Breaking: Google Acquires Jaiku, Why Not Twitter?
This is somewhat surprising news considering the perceived dominance of Twitter in the so-called ‘lifestreaming†space. Additionally, Twitter is co-founded by Evan Williams, who was the creator of Blogger, which was previously acquired by Google. In a world where price is no object for Google, it’s interesting that they would opt for Jaiku and not Twitter.
Well, they’re two different animals.
Twitter = hugely annoying, not the concept itsef, but the medium. I just couldn’t get into having to write a text message every time I wanted to do an update. It just felt like such a waste; a repetitive waste, particularly with our idiot mobile handset design.
Go to menu
Go to messaging
Wait for the handset to open the messaging application
Open new message window
Address it
Write the Twitter message
Send the message… wait for it to …send…send…. gone! Sent!
What a palava.
I recognise there are many other ways of Twittering — however I developed serious ‘isshooos’ with the reliance on the medium of text.
So when Jaiku came out with an application ON the handset.. that was it for me. The current beta iterations are just looking fantastic — and, what’s more, I know they can and will do more.
The fact Google snapped them up points to many interesting possibilities for the way ahead. Or maybe not. Maybe they’ll do nothing with them. Or maybe they’ll knock them together with Dodgeball (another great concept but annoyingly reliant on the medium of text)? Or more…
(Oh, and maybe Twitter weren’t for sale..)
