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Google goes for mobile Lifestreaming
AT the recent CMI event on Web 2.0, the panel was asked what we thought would be the next big thing in social media.
My response was that I thought mobile handsets would become a main focus.
I think that once we get secure e-payments via mobile worked out, just about all personal computing will go mobile, including social media.
Now, only a couple of weeks after my Fearless Sherrilynne Prediction, we see that Google has acquired Jaiku Limited, a company that offers a software application for mobile phones that allows you to post and browse short messages.
It is not unlike Twitter and there are rumours circulating that Yahoo! is courting Twitter with a view to making an acquisition of its own.
Jaiku is not the first mobile service that Google has bought out in recent months.
Teens and twenty-somethings use Zingku's free service to send text and picture messages on their mobile phones without additional software and Google has made other similar acquisitions during the past year.
Google product manager Tony Hsieh keeps a blog. He wrote: 'Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it's more difficult to keep track of everyone when they're running around at warp speed.
'That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Jaiku, a company that's been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most — regardless of whether you're at a computer or on a mobile phone.'
Hsieh said current Jaiku users can still use the service as they have been and that new users will be able to sign up for an invitation when Google is ready to expand the service.
Jaiku's own blog posted a message saying: 'We are eager to go beyond what's there today and build something completely new for you to enjoy.
Take this as an invitation to join us on a journey to reinvent how you communicate and stay in touch with the people you care about.'
Tools like Jaiku and Twitter make it possible to do what is commonly referred to as snippet-blogging, lifestreaming or microblogging.
You can send short messages to your network several times a day to keep everyone fully informed. Of what, I am not sure.
'Am on the bus to work. Rain!.'
'Meeting with William.'
'Rugby tonight.'
These are just a few examples of Jaikus I picked up today. I do not see the information being conveyed as particularly fascinating, but I can see the appeal.
News of this acquisition spread like wild fire among Jaiku users long before any news organisation reported it.
Widespread use of instant messaging proves that people find it riveting to watch what others are doing — logging on and off, putting simple information in their away messages.
I love Facebook's status message which is brilliantly aggregated into a personal newsfeed for each user. For example, I now know that a colleague of mine didn't get to sleep until after 2am this morning and that somebody else is looking for a new job. 'XXXX is crap at job interviews,' his status message proclaims.
Google is definitely moving into the mobile phone software business with the development of the gPhone — a software suite bringing advertising to the handset. Jaiku-type features will add value and allow people to interact with brands on mobile.
As one mobile phone company is always telling us, the future is bright.
>>Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner of Strive Public Relations, a communications consultancy in the Isle of Man. She provides her views on business and technology each week in Tech Talk. Visit her business blog Strive Notes for frequent updates.
www.strivepr.com
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Weather for Isle of Man
Saturday 04 February 2012
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