February 8th, 2008
Did Google buy Plaxo?
Rumor has it that Google agreed to purchase Plaxo for just under $200 million — honestly though, I don’t know why. If the deal actually happened, some people think it was probably to keep Plaxo assets from finding a new home at Facebook. I don’t think that would have any real affect on Google though, so I’m not totally sold on this reasoning.
Plaxo was originally a way to manage contacts, but has recently re-positioned itself as a social network with the introduction of “Pulse”. This service has already been integrating their with Google for quite a while now — from Open Social to the brand new Social Graph API. According to the Plaxo blog, they were the first service to use Google’s Social Graph API.
Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land offers up a couple ideas as to where Plaxo technology could be used inside Google:
Google would likely integrate Plaxo functionality into its Docs suite of applications aimed at enterprise users. By contrast, Pulse could be joined with Orkut or become the backbone of a new, expanded Google Profiles.
Do you think Google purchased Plaxo? If so, why?
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
