Google has acquired Jaiku (a Helsinki-based company that offers members "micro-blogging" services) Jaiku's founders have announced on their company blog.

The terms of the deal have not been released, but what this means for current users of the service is discussed in detail. From the blog:

"Exciting news: Google has bought Jaiku today. What does that mean? First and foremost, we’re of course continuing to support our existing users. So fear not: your Jaiku phone, the Web site, IM, SMS, and API will continue to work normally."

"That said, new user sign-ups have been limited for the time being. The idea here is to enable our team to get right to work with Google’s engineers on delivering a new, better service to you as quickly as we can instead of spending our efforts on optimizing the current back-end. Existing users will still be able to invite their friends, and those who are not yet on Jaiku can send us a request for an invitation to join."

"We’ve put together a short FAQ about the acquisition, and we’ll continue to provide support on the Jaiku channel. But we’re eager to go beyond what’s there today, and build something completely new for you to enjoy. Take this as an invitation to join us on a journey to reinvent how you communicate and stay in touch with the people you care about."

Industry expert Om Malik, speculates that this is a "great addition for Google" and "another piece of the Google Phone Puzzle".

>> Link - Jaiku
>> Via - GigaOM