Google Acquires Dodgeball

kalki writes "Dodgeball.com, a service that uses mobile phones to help people meet up with friends who are in the same location, said on its website on Wednesday that it has been bought by Web search leader Google Inc. Also available on the official site is a Q&A about the deal." From the article: "As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken dodgeball about a far as we can alone. Since we finished grad school, we've been trying to figure out how to grow dodgeball and make it a better service along the way. We talked to a lot of different angel investors and venture capitalists, but no one really 'got' what we were doing - that is until we met Google."

people search

[farker haiku]

Wait, so now google helps you search a crowd for a friend of yours? I can dig it.

Borg??

[Anonymous Coward]

The next microsoft??

Google the next Microsoft?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone else think Google may be the next Microsoft? With the way they are buying every company under the sun they seem to be taking a page out of Microsoft's handbook. Luckily it seems they skipped the chaper on being a spawn of Satan and everything.

I know it's unreasonable at the time being...

[fat man with a monke]

but, could there be a possibility of integrating this feature with google maps or google local eventually? Google local search of "what bar are my friends hanging out at tonight?" drop down some phone numbers, get a google map to where they are.

Where it fits in for Google

[romit_icarus]

I wonder if this acquisition is somehow related to the Google Ride Finder (http://labs.google.com/ridefinder [google.com]).

It's New York City, it's location based, and it's more than GPS...

Re:people search

[grub]

I bet you'll see a google map (or satellite photo if that area is covered) with an overlay of where your friends are. It wouldn't be that hard.

(hey, Google could get into the cell business and triangulate you from its towers. Now that IS getting evil.)

Info about the technology.

[PxM]

I'm guessing they use the same tech which lets cellphone towers figure out your location for 911 calls. Is there anyway to access this locational information without having to pay the cell companies for the technology?

Dodgeball Looks Pretty Cool

[Mean_Nishka]

This Dodgeball thing looks pretty cool. It would be even better if it worked using location based GPS vs. SMS messaging.

One thing to watch is the post acquisition. Google's really didn't do much for Orkut. While Friendster continually builds a user base and adds features, Orkut remains slow and bug ridden.

Does this mean..

[hass]

that Google will know where I am, too?

Re:The cynic in me...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is absolutely not true. I have met these guys, and friends of mine have helped Dens and Alex in certain ways through this process, and they were definitely offered plenty of money from other sources.

Interesting direction google is taking.

[the_mutha]

If I'm not mistaken, the first service that google launched that was able to help you keep track of your friends was Orkut. Orkut has been hugely successfull here in Brazil. So much so, to the point where a lot of people have closed their accounts because of security concerns.

I remember reading a cartoon one of these days where basically before a job interview, the interviewer starts to mention all this "nasty" stuff about the interviewee because he checked the interviewee's Orkut and found all the groups where he belongs to, etc. I've also heard about people getting dumped because of Orkut. Many people have already closed their accounts because of this. If you are evil, you can find out A LOT about the person's life and do them harm.

Obviously dodgeball does not fall into this category, but it makes me think about all the services Google has planned. Obviously that overall they do more good than harm, but I can't help but think that some of this will be abused and used by organized crime, identity theft etc.

Think about it.

• Orkut
  
• Google maps
  
• Dodgeball
  

Now mix those three together. I wonder how far Google will go in integrating these services, and how much care they will take in preventing abuse. We'll just have to wait and see.

On buying startups before they get big (GOOG)

[otisg]

Ah, interesting. If you've read Paul Graham's latest essay and last night's thread [1] on Slashdot, you'll find this paragraph from Paul'e essay rather interesting and timely:

"What companies should do is go out and discover startups when they're young, before VCs have puffed them up into something that costs hundreds of millions to acquire."

[1] http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=149177&cid=125 06957 [slashdot.org]
[2] http://simpy.com/ [simpy.com] - 1-man mini Google

Re:New Trend

[CHESTER COPPERPOT]

I believe it was stated on John Battelle [battellemedia.com]'s weblog that search is the center of gravity [thenewnormal.com] for the computer industry [battellemedia.com] .

Of course I didn't RTFA, but

[Anonymous Coward]

what's the use of a system that helps you "meet up with friends who are in the same location"? ... If you are in the same location, haven't you already met up with them?

Re:Funny, Yes, but not funny for Google.

[farker haiku]

You fail to understand the power of marketting. These conversations happen using AIM on their Verizon phones. Teeny bopper 1 to Teeny bopper 2: Meet me at the mall after school, k? Teeny bopper 2 to Teeny bopper 1: Alright! Teeny bopper 1 to mom: Can you pick us up at the mall at 8? mom to Teeny bopper 1: Which entrance? Teeny bopper 1 to mom: Use dodgeball silly...

Re:people search

[says]

Dodgeball's tech/software doesn't do gps search.

Dodgeball updates your position based on sms.
Two features make it better than just texting your friends:
1. You can alert friends of friends, and end up meeting people in your extended network who happen to be at the same bar.
2. Your updates can be read online.

That second feature has some overlap with mobile blogging, something Google just got into...
But Dodgeball has all the dating tools of a singles site, too.

Re:Funny, Yes, but not funny for Google.

[donweel]

Here's a scenario for you. Me and a friend were out sportbike riding around MtBaker, we were into some twisties I was slightly behind my buddy. I look to the left and see a group of fellow Canadians at the side of the road it looks like there's a problem. I start flashing my hi beam and honking my horn but my partner is in Ducati World and sees nothing but the next corner to attack. So I turn around and figure he will notice sooner or l8tor and turn around. It turns out This fellow lost it in a corner, he was ok but his vfr was bent, we straightened the front end as best we could, then they headed back home and I continued on to hook back up with my partner. I checked the restaurant at the parking lot of the ski hill but while I was there my partner went by the other way. I never found him. by the time was able to get him on his phone he was back at the border and I was having lunch at the next tavern. If we could have stopped and located each other using this it would have been a better day.

Money Maker

[dwayner79]

This is going to be huge. Not only are you going to be near a freind, you will be near 3 shops that have ads with google. It may get annoying, but they have to pay for this somehow.

Re:When you "google" someone tomorrow

[Anonymous Coward]

The US Government has long had influence in Google acquisition and development strategies, ask Google directly, they wont lie, but you *will* get a standard "we cant confirm or deny" style response. There are several dedicated pipes that are purely for government use and have full access to all personally identifiable information without requiring approval from Google top brass.

You are logged in as rekcah5 in New York City.

[iseff]

Did nobody notice the top line of the page? The poster of this story included a Session ID variable in the query string, and apparently dodgeball does a terrible job with security, because now we're all logged in as rekcah5. Wow. Hopefully Google helps out a bit.