Remember Leo Laporte switching from Twitter to Jaiku because the former was too much like the name of his podcast? Seems like #1 Twitterer at the time (now that honor probably goes to Scoble) switched to the right camp with today’s news.

Saw first at Gigaom that Google is buying Jaiku:

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.

A FAQ page at Jaiku place outlines the details answering, among other questions, why:

Activity streams and mobile presence are important areas where we believe Google can add a lot of value for users. Jaiku’s technology and talented team are a great addition to Google’s current application and mobile teams.

Good thing I have the same name on Jaiku as Google, so integration into the Google hive should be incident-free. Now the bigger question:

Do those of us who wondered what the big deal was need to rethink the value of Twitteresq conversations? Just because Google buys something (disclaimer: I own stock) doesn’t give the service instant validation, but it does give some good street cred. Look at the stock, bubbling around the $615 mark as I write this. Cliche be damned, it is hard to argue with success.

While I like the idea of some types of social networks like music where I think it’s a good way to find/explore new music, I’m still mostly on the sidelines with these short IM/IRC-like web message services. My Twitter/Jaiku world is still in IRC. What are you using services like Twitter and Jaiku to do? Has it been helpful to your business communication? Or is it a time waster?

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• … agony of Apple affiliate defeat