Google has announced that they have snapped up twitter competitor Jaiku today. It is a good move by google as they can integrate the microblogging technology into many of their existing services. Why not twitter some may ask. It has been long known that Jaiku's technology and features are better than twitter. There hasn't been mass exodus from twitter to Jaiku because people built up their friends on twitter and had their social network there. It was too much of a pain to ask all your friends to move to yet another service.

Google doesn't need the users, they have hundreds of millions of them using search and their existing applications. It is likely that that they wanted the more advanced technology to integrate it. Smart move.

What does that mean for twitter? It could be good and it could mean real competition is on the way. On one side of the coin, people like twitter because it is standalone and the vast amount of ways that there is to connect with twitter (API and 3rd party offerings). In that respect, there isn't really any strong competition anymore. On the other hand, if google integrates well then millions and millions will get twitterlike functionality with Orkut, gmail, office apps, google phone (if it is in fact on the way) and all of the other google apps. Lets see how well google integrates Jaiku with their existing offerings.

Here is a copy of the note on google's blog:

"Technology has made staying in touch with your friends and family both easier and harder: living a fast-paced, on-the-go lifestyle is easier (and a lot of fun), but it's more difficult to keep track of everyone when they're running around at warp speed. That's why we're excited to announce that we've acquired Jaiku, a company that's been hard at work developing useful and innovative applications for staying in touch with the people you care about most -- regardless of whether you're at a computer or on a mobile phone.

We wish a hearty Google welcome to Jaiku, and are looking forward to working together on new and innovative ways of keeping people connected."

The original Jaiku - google blog release can be found here .

Update:  Here is the note that is on the Jaiku home page

"Wonderful Jaiku users,

Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen, Jaiku Founders"