BBC aside, Google's acquisition of Twitter rival Jaiku was the most surprising news to break while I was away.
Jaiku's co-founder Jyri Engeström (we covered him at Essential Web in June) is an academic specialising in anthropology, and his insight and analysis of the rise of instant messaging and "expressive presence" will be a significant boost to Google's brain bank in this area.
Jaiku has a European focus (it's Finnish) and a very clean interface - arguably cleaner than Twitter - though any shortfall of take-up is due to reluctance by users to put in the effort required to build up that critical mass of friends, as Twitterers will concur.
But Jaiku is a more extensive and arguably more ambitious service than Twitter, and it seems a solid complement to Google's mobile ambitions. If there was ever an application that could link web content with the addictiveness of mobile texting, then this is it.
Jaiku describes its service as "activity streams and mobile presence" and say Google can add value to the service. Ivar Ekman in the New York Times today cautions that the purchase triggers some serious privacy concerns, if the visions of a data rich messaging service come true. It could mean a much richer mix of data displayed alongside your "presence", so whatever you can imagine - maps, video, targeted ads and a live photo of where you are right now, next to your instant message - will happen at some point.
"All this opens serious questions about privacy, and about whether people are prepared to be constantly traceable, even if only by friends," writes Ekman, saying that Jaiku is working to add privacy settings without over-complicating the service.
Technorati Tags: Google, Jaiku, JyriEngestrom
