Google Inside

Coming in from news.com, Jaiku — a Twitter rival — has been acquired by Google.

Q: What is Jaiku?

A. Jaiku is an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones. Jaiku, Ltd. was founded in February, 2006 by Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen from Finland. The service was released on the Web in July 2006. Jaiku is based in Helsinki.

Q: Why did Google acquire Jaiku?

A: Activity streams and mobile presence are important areas where we believe Google can add a lot of value for users. Jaiku’s technology and talented team are a great addition to Google’s current application and mobile teams.

Looks like another acquisition by Google in the bag. If it isn’t obvious to you that Google wants a piece of the mobile industry, this acquisition will change that.

Late last month, Google acquired Zingku to add to their mobile game. Google is desperate to challenge, tackle, and dominate the mobile market. It’s become quite clear to me that Google definitely views mobile technology as the future.

Mobile technology is still relatively new. I remember just four years ago when I had an older Samsung phone. Now that same Samsung phone would be long outdated. I had switched from that Samsung phone to a Treo 650 (and I now have the Treo 750) and it completely changed how I operate. Google is predicting the trend, even if it’s already started to settle in, and knows that it has to be at the cutting edge — and be the first.