Why Did Google Buy JotSpot? And what happened to it?
Google acquired Jotspot on 10/31/2006. Google’s world class data centers, huge audience and a team of incredibly smart people…. supposed to make JotSpot a better software. But what happened to it? Still closed to new users. Software doesn't work anymore. Joe Kraus busy with Google OpenSocial. Is JotSpot dead?
This is quite the same screen even today. Closed off for new users and uninterrupted access to existing users. It has been quite the same from the moment the announcement (that Google acquired JotSpot) came in on 10/31/2006 to today.
So, What happened to JotSpot?
Google's world class data centers, huge audience and a team of incredibly smart people.... supposed to make JotSpot a better software. But what happened to it? I had an account before Google acquired. I was trying to reach the support team for a long time as I had a few issues but no reply so far. Is JotSpot officially dead?
If you are wondering, its not a big deal. The first announcement of Google acquiring Jotspot came in on 10/31/2006.
10/31/2006
Spot on - 10/31/2006 Joe Kraus, JotSpot
OK, I can finally blurt it out: JotSpot is now part of Google, and I couldn't be more excited.
It was pretty apparent that Google shared our vision for how groups of people can create, manage and share information online. Then when we had conversations with people at Google we found ourselves completing each other's sentences. Joining Google allows us to plug into the resources that only a company of Google's scale can offer, like a huge audience, access to world-class data centers and a team of incredibly smart people.
Our first order of business is to move JotSpot to Google's software architecture. While we're doing so, we've turned off new registrations. But if you're interested, sign up for our waitlist and we'll keep you posted.
I did not see any thing, absolutely nothing after that. I happened to see what Joe Kraus the founder of JotSpot doing at Google. Just a few months back.
11/02/2007
OpenSocial makes the web better - 11/02/2007 Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management
That's why today we're excited to introduce OpenSocial, a set of common APIs that make it easy to create and host social applications on the web. OpenSocial allows developers to write an application once that will run anywhere that supports the OpenSocial APIs.
Is Joe Kraus done with JotSpot completely as he appears to be quite busy with openSocial? Is there a plan for JotSpot at Google?
Update: Not officially announced by Google yet, but it looks like JotSpot will have a meaningful contribution to Google pretty soon.
First, Google Sites, an evolution of Google Page Creator, will launch in 2008. Google Sites will be based on JotSpot collaboration tools and will allow businesses to create intranets, project management tracking, extranets and other custom sites.
Comments
Google acquired JotSpot in October 2006. Sixteen months ago. In the web 2.0 world how many companies have been formed, financed and sold in that time? All Google had to do is integrate an existing fully-finished product. Something is seriously amiss.
Wikis are not search. Yes, search is difficult to do as a provider, but from a user's point of view if Google search doesn't work then we just use a different search engine. Wikis and other collaborative software are curious in that they are the opposite: it is realtively easy to be a wiki company, but having access to a reliable product is extemely important to the wiki user. Wikis are highly valuable because of the value of the information and collective intellegence they contain. As a user I can switch search engines in a second, but it takes quite a bit of effort to switch wikis. For an enterprise user, switching wikis may take weeks and thousands in porting and reprogramming.
With JotSpot Google enters a new world, where businesses must be assured that Google will not leave them technologically stranded. How many customers had substantial amounts of data in JotSpot last October, and left it there because of Google's continued promises of "any day now"? These customers are still there, without the ability to add projects or databases, without support, without even an official word of a release date. This go-in-dark-mode-without-a-word for sixteen months is exactly what businesses do not want for any collaboration or database product.
Google has taken their first real software opportunity and shot themselves in the foot. First impressions are hard to shake, especially when the first impression goes on for sixteen months.