DISQUS

ChrisRossini · 1 year ago

I can't agree more...I wonder why they dropped the ball and let FriendFeed swoop in (with a very similar service).

However, I'm sure the average Google account holder has no idea about Twitter or FriendFeed, so perhaps Google is keeping Jaiku in the holster for a later date.

Shane · 1 year ago

An argument I have heard a number of times is that Google didn't buy Jaiku for the service but rather saw it as a way to get Jyri and Petteri onboard. If you've ever seen any of Jyri's presentations or heard him in interviews, it's obvious he's done some seriously deep thinking on social networks and ways people relate to each other. Petteri appears to be similarly switched on.

The jewel in the Jaiku crown has, apparently, always been the Symbian 60 client for Nokia phones (I can't say for sure as I've never owned a Nokia). It's possible that Jaiku will come into its own as a service if/when Android is rolled out in sufficiently large numbers.

The final possibility is that, like Microsoft before it, Google has become too large to be agile and that new acquisitions will be absorbed at glacial pace as sexy new start-ups battle to integrate with Google's systems.

It's interesting, and with increased Twitter stability I see Jaiku being talked about more and more. Time will tell I suppose.

Tyler · 1 year ago

google is keeping jaiku inactive on purpose. they are going to resurrect it once they are ready to go live again.

digiSal · 1 year ago

i love jaiku. some local friends and I were on Twitter a few months back but when i finally got an invite to Jaiku I brought them all over to Jaiku and we love it. My friends are not tech people so they dont know how huge twitter is and friendfeed. but having conversations in Jaiku has been so so so much easier.

Twitter used to crash on us all the time so it was hard to plan get togethers, but with Jaiku, its never been a problem. Those 504 gateways you spoke of did not last too long at all. Remember we use it on a daily basis all day long and we'd remember if it was down and out forever.

But because its been slow to gain momentum there is hardly any third party apps for Jaiku. There is not even an Air app. Sure you can cross post with Twirl but thats not really a Jaiku app. Some apps are here http://jaikufans.com/tools

I read and read how people use Twitter to communicate and spread info all the time but I always think how messy it is without real threading. Sure you have Quatably but it only guesses.

So hit me up if you need an invite anyone digisal at gmail dot com, and if i run out, and i will because ive been spamming techcrunch and mashable LOL, use http://jaikuinvites.com/

Srini Kumar · 1 year ago

i think this is why facebook and even yahoo have played so hard to get: M&A has often meant innovation-freeze or utter demolition of the original brand (cf Jot). both ceo's obviously feel that they have some tricks up their sleeve that they want to implement before they will consider the market truly educated about what they can do as autonomous entities. it may be foolhardy, but unless you HAVE to sell out (in which case you should build it, promote it, and flip it like YouTube), it just feels wrong to do so until you've really fleshed your ideas out in your product.

Ev & Biz are absolutely certain that they are just getting started with the Twitter saga. Jaiku might have been sort of "done" as far as the lead coders were concerned. Totally different ambition sets but the bottom line is that there is no substitute for a founder's passion as far as innovation is concerned, even if it makes them turn down a truck of money. After all, Ev has already been through the Google thing, right ? He would know....

ianbetteridge · 1 year ago

Jyri's put out a post on the Jaiku blog which reveals a little of what they're up to - http://www.jaiku.com/blog/2008/05/30/making-pro...

Avatar X · 1 year ago

A little bit of history here:

Google not only has done this before with Dodgeball but what a better example of neglect and glacial development than Picasa and Blogger?. Two Prime properties that can be seen as crop of the best in the web and they got them in neglect. they even let things like Hello, Audioblogger and other just drop dead out of that same neglect.

So if they neglect things as important as Picasa and Blogger. how come anyone would get surprised that jaiku had the same treatment?

JimLyons · 1 year ago

Sarah have you found Plurk.com it exploded last week when Leo Laporte mentioned it on TWIT quite addictive

sarahintampa · 1 year ago

Yep, sure did. Claimed my name, but am still undecided on the whole thing.

jonmul · 1 year ago

Fair comments, but why would Google bother working hard to get Jaiku onto AppEngine so that it can scale smoothly if they didn't have plans for it?

My belief is that Jaiku will play a key part in Android (see http://jonmul.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/think-ja...). If this turns out to be the case they won't worry about losing the early adopter crowd - they'll just try and take the service mass market.