google_heart_jaiku.pngLast week Google bought Jaiku.com. Jaiku, which is similar to Twitter, allows people to stay connected online, wherever they may be in the real world.

Jaiku’s main goal is to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their activity streams. An activity stream is a log of everyday things as they happen: your status messages, recommendations, events you’re attending, photos you’ve taken – anything you post directly to Jaiku or add using Web feeds. We offer a way to connect with the people you care about by sharing your activities with them on the Web, IM, and SMS – as well as through a slew of cool third-party applications built by other developers using our API. [Jaiku | About Jaiku]

Of course, Jaiku seems to fit well into Google’s grand plan for the GPhone. Jaiku has already shown itself to be strong in the ways of mobile connectivity:

The most powerful instrument of social peripheral vision is your mobile phone. We’ve put in a special effort to create Jaiku Mobile, a live phonebook that displays the activity streams, availability, and location of your Jaiku contacts right in your phone contact list. We modestly believe it is the best solution out there for seeing what your friends are up to. Currently Jaiku Mobile is available for phones based on the Nokia S60 software platform (see the list of compatible devices). [Jaiku | About Jaiku]

As with most Google acquisitions and product launches, registration for Jaiku is now by invite-only. Luckily, I signed up for Jaiku right after the initial launch of the service back in early April of this year. Right now we have 10 invites available, so the first 10 people who request one in the comments will receive an invitation. First post, first serve. So hurry while they still last!