As I was sorting through my feeds, I stumbled upon an article of Steve Poland: Get Neglected: Go Get Acquired by Google. He simply noticed that some companies – like Jotspot, Dodgeball, Jaiku – kinda disappeared once they were sucked in the search juggernaut.
It made me think right away of yesterday’s partnership between Twitter and Google Maps for Super Tuesday.
I don’t know what the terms of this partnership are, but it consisted of utilizing Google Maps and the Twitter community to geo-localize Twitterati talking about the elections. Even though Twitter might have used the Google Maps apps without consulting with Google, it sounds pretty unlikely. Such an important deal as Super Tuesday has to be coordinated on both Google and Twitter’s ends.
Which leads to to ask: What happened to Jaiku? Is Steve Poland right? Have they been bought by Google to be neglected? Would Google go as far as buying out and neglect Twitter’s competitors out of love for the founder of Blogger? Honestly, I have no idea, I’m just surprised that Jaiku is slowly dying while Twitter is living la vida loca.