Google Gets Mobile, Acquires Jaiku

The mobile web is definitely hot right now, and the almighty Google has just solidified their presence in the mobile space by buying Jaiku, a Finnish company that provides a mobile instant messaging service.

There’s a FAQ about the acquisition on Jaiku’s website – they say that it shouldn’t change much for users at the moment, but it will be exciting to see what Jaiku does now that they have Google’s support.  Of course, this way Google can also extend its advertising into the mobile sphere – which might not be such a bad thing, especially for mobile-centric companies in search of ad revenue.  Also, considering that reports of a “gphone” have been popping up on tech blogs, Jaiku could end up being an important component of that.

Got a mobile web project of your own?  If it’s related to local news and based around a particular community, check out the Knight News Challenge – you could win funding for your ideas. 

Bonus links: coverage of the deal on Techcrunch, O’Reilly Radar, and Read Write Web.

Developing Apps for the Palm Centro

Yeah, yeah, it’s not as cool or sexy as the iphone – but really, what other web-enabled phone is?  However, the Palm Centro is sleek, functional, and significantly less expensive – it’s only $99.99, making it much more affordable for those not ready to take the costly iphone plunge. 

In my last post, I talked about the mobile web and what people are developing for it – and you can bet that when this phone arrives on the market in October 2007, more people than ever are going to be accessing the net from their phones.  Working on a mobile app that delivers news via smart phone?  Enter the news challenge.

Picture via Engadget.