Google Acquires AppJet
We are happy to announce that AppJet Inc. has been acquired by Google. The EtherPad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration by joining the Google Wave team. — For Current Users and Customers: — What will happen to my account? Will I still be able to use EtherPad?
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second time Google has absorbed a small startup by folding its whole team into one of its own product groups: the Jaiku crew made the same move back in October 2007. This time the target is AppJet, whose realtime editor EtherPad goes straight into the Google Wave team — a direct talent injection into Google's most ambitious collaboration bet.
TechCrunch confirmed the deal the same day, and the announcement itself leads with a customer-facing FAQ ('What will happen to my account?'), signaling that existing EtherPad users are left waiting on continuity answers. It lands days after Google began winding down its Gears browser plug-in, part of the same consolidation of web-platform technology.
First-order effects
- EtherPad's current users and paying customers now depend on Google for their tool's fate — the acquisition notice explicitly leaves account and access questions unanswered as the team migrates to Wave.
Second-order effects
- Independent realtime-collaboration tools lose their most prominent small rival to Google's payroll, while the Wave team gains working EtherPad technology ahead of competing collaborative editors.
Third-order effects
- The Jaiku-to-Wave sequence hardens into a repeatable playbook: Google staffs strategic product bets by acquiring tiny teams rather than building in-house, leaving hosted-service users to absorb the transition risk each time.
The trend: Google is assembling its realtime-collaboration stack through team acquisitions, with EtherPad following the path Jaiku blazed in 2007.