There seems to be a fresh wave of Jaiku rumours circulating at the moment, I guess becuase of the technical problems Twitter is having currently. I wondered if this post still reflected your opinion, or if you had any new thoughts on the subject?

I’m not against startup owners using Google as an exit, even if it means their project might be put on ice under it’s new owners. But anyone looking to put any serious amount of time/money/attention/another scarce resource into a startup needs to carefully consider what the owner’s ultimate motives are for their site.

I think you’re having very good points here. I too tried to utter some remarks in the same directions directly on Jaiku, where I have been a relatively activ user during the previous half year.

But most users seemed to be happily sending grats to the lucky – former – owners of Jaiku, Jyri and Petteri.

According to your post I find it very exiting to see what will happen in the coming year!

I was invited to the opening of the London Google office, which from the get-go has been championed as their mobile HQ (this must have been 2-3 years ago, before GPhone). I don’t think they do much else there other than some Google Appliance sales.

Since then I’ve heard various things about the projects going on there from people I know who work at Google, which I can’t really attribute for obvious reasons.

(Not sure if you know my background, but I’m originally from London so I know a lot of people in the London tech industry at the major players: BBC, Google, Yahoo!).

I’m also curious if the Jaiku acquisition might shed any light on the GPhone itself, assuming they did buy Jaiku for the programmers and technology?

Now I’m a bit glad they didn’t buy Twitter, since I’d hate to see it stop growing new users, let alone disappear!