Google has acquired Jaiku, a mobile social networking and blogging service which is a direct competitor to Twitter, the uber-popular mini-blogging on the go and keeping up with your friends concept.
Jaiku users can customize their designs, use icons and make blog posts on their Jaiku pages while keeping track of friends’ moods, messaging and comment on friends’ blogs (I see this as being the future of GTalk). The most Google-friendly part of Jaiku, besides its user generated content, is that Jaiku is very mobile phone friendly; a market Google is heavily focusing on in terms of reach and monetization.
If anything, the Google acquisition of Jaiku and the recent news of Google agreeing to buy Zingku, another mobile social service, brings back memories of when Google acquired Blogger and how doing so led to a skyrocketing leap in blog popularity and an outlet for testing Google AdSense.
Google seems to be taking more of a widespread approach to the mobile market, not just focusing on search, but the different aspects of user behavior on the mobile phone.
I mean, come on, do you actually search on your phone all day? Or is checking email, scores, news and keeping up and down with your friends more important?
By addressing all aspects of the mobile web experience, Google may end up carving themselves new mobile operating system which is totally integrated across the mobile and Internet spectrum; all connected via search, advertising, and one Google Account login.
