Slashdot Mirror
Google Acquires Dodgeball
kalki writes "Dodgeball.com, a service that uses mobile phones to help people meet up with friends who are in the same location, said on its website on Wednesday that it has been bought by Web search leader Google Inc. Also available on the official site is a Q&A about the deal." From the article: "As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken dodgeball about a far as we can alone. Since we finished grad school, we've been trying to figure out how to grow dodgeball and make it a better service along the way. We talked to a lot of different angel investors and venture capitalists, but no one really 'got' what we were doing - that is until we met Google."
...how rich will these guys be now?
Wait, so now google helps you search a crowd for a friend of yours? I can dig it.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
The next microsoft??
"It's time for you to put your mouth where our balls are!"
We talked to a lot of different angel investors and venture capitalists, but no one really 'got' what we were doing - that is until we met Google."
I think what he's really saying is "We begged but no one offered us any money... until we met Google."
Trolling is a art,
Anyone else think Google may be the next Microsoft? With the way they are buying every company under the sun they seem to be taking a page out of Microsoft's handbook. Luckily it seems they skipped the chaper on being a spawn of Satan and everything.
...what the "???" is in
1.
2. ???
3. Profit!
It's "Get purchased by Google!"
Uh oh, my small fanboy-brain cant handle this. There is a small civil war going on in my brain. To the left, there's the "Yay for google, they are teh bestest!" camp, and to the right, there is the "OMG TEH BIG BROTHER IS GONNA GET YOUSE!" camp.....I just hope my brain doesnt explode....
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Well... that is if I had any...
Google is in a lot of things that seem really cool.
I am concerned, however, about the infrastructure of society being in the hands of a company.
That is exactly what Microsoft wants, in my opinion, and in that respect, Google and MS are identical.
That is why MS is watching Google so closely.
but, could there be a possibility of integrating this feature with google maps or google local eventually? Google local search of "what bar are my friends hanging out at tonight?" drop down some phone numbers, get a google map to where they are.
It's New York City, it's location based, and it's more than GPS...
But seriously,
Too bad their server couldn't 'dodge' a slashdotting!
Crap, do Sun and IBM know about this? They'll have to make a couple more purchases just to keep up with Google. Wake me up when there's only one fish left in the pond...
Great idea. Google has had tremendous success with it's prior engagement in social sites. Just look at Orkut.com
Yes, I was being sarcastic. I'm still trying to figure out why they made this move. It doesn't seem to fit into the "organizing the world" mantra?
Underholdning.info
Great, to the list we can add "Google knows where you are" ;P
One that hath name thou can not otter
I'm guessing they use the same tech which lets cellphone towers figure out your location for 911 calls. Is there anyway to access this locational information without having to pay the cell companies for the technology?
When you look at all the services Google has that they offer for free, and some of their paid services, Google really has filled a needed market. Go to one place for everything. It will be interesting to see what effect Google has on YAHOO over the next year. I like Yahoo's main page, but Google simply rocks.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
One thing to watch is the post acquisition. Google's really didn't do much for Orkut. While Friendster continually builds a user base and adds features, Orkut remains slow and bug ridden.
www.lonseidman.com
"Grad students aquire small nation"
Anyone get the movie file of these two soulmates running down a beach in slow motion into each others arms?
Guess Google got tired of getting beaned all the time at recess so they just bought the whole darned game. EK
Mozy, free online backup service
--
that Google will know where I am, too?
I predict a new trend to start emerging: Think of a unique/different way in which 'searching' is in anyway involved and create a startup with full intentions of being bought by Google.
I remember reading a cartoon one of these days where basically before a job interview, the interviewer starts to mention all this "nasty" stuff about the interviewee because he checked the interviewee's Orkut and found all the groups where he belongs to, etc. I've also heard about people getting dumped because of Orkut. Many people have already closed their accounts because of this. If you are evil, you can find out A LOT about the person's life and do them harm.
Obviously dodgeball does not fall into this category, but it makes me think about all the services Google has planned. Obviously that overall they do more good than harm, but I can't help but think that some of this will be abused and used by organized crime, identity theft etc.
Think about it.
Now mix those three together. I wonder how far Google will go in integrating these services, and how much care they will take in preventing abuse. We'll just have to wait and see.
Cue the "Google has gone evil" conspiracists!
C17H21NO4
Well, there are already many rumors and speculations that the government can use cell phones as tracking devices. But you take Cell Phones, Google Maps, and Google's new beta feature which lets you track taxis and limousines as they move down the street, and you have a homing device which displays your current location on a scrolling map for people to track where you are and what you are doing.
Given that a few of Google's recent advancements have had much potential for abuse, does anyone think they might actually use this service? Wouldn't you be worried that people will be able to track you, when you would rather not have them know where you are? What about the loss of the ability to tell your boss you are at home sick from your cell phone as you're waiting in line for the next new roller coaster at Cedar Point?
Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.
Google already knows your computer usage...might as well track your location and places you go in real life also. Think of how much advertisers would pay for that info in addition to everything else Google tracks about you (email, searches, local drive searches, internet usage).
Now, in conjunction with their maps system, they can follow which stores/restaurants/etc you go to. Tracking web activity and real-life activity means big sells to advertisers, maybe.
how many do you have to sign up with? friendster? orkut? dodgeball? myspace? social networking software won't really take off until you manage your own connections and spider-like software crawls it to offer whatever services it can.
Yes, you made a funny statement. But this acquisition is not funny for Google. This is, perhaps, the first of many egregious errors on the part of Google. The technology behind Dodgeball.com is stupid.
Here's why...
If you don't know where your friends are -- they aren't your friends. So losers will use the service because they have no friends. They will use the service to find out where cool people are, but since no cool people are using the service, for obvious reasons, this service will turn into a real geekfest. Hence, the post, on Slashdot, about it.
On the other hand, if you want to know places you should avoid, perhaps using this service is not so bad, as long as you don't key in your location.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I have no friends. :( Can Dodgeball help me find some?
If anyone can beat GloboGym, the Google team can.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
translated from biz to normal language
"but no one really 'wanted' to give us enough money"
'So I said, narrow the focus. Your "use case" should be, there's a 22 year old college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid?'
http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html
Ah, interesting. If you've read Paul Graham's latest essay and last night's thread [1] on Slashdot, you'll find this paragraph from Paul'e essay rather interesting and timely:
5 06957
"What companies should do is go out and discover startups when they're young, before VCs have puffed them up into something that costs hundreds of millions to acquire."
[1] http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=149177&cid=12
[2] http://simpy.com/ - 1-man mini Google
Simpy
why didn't they buy http://www.plazes.com/ ? I think it's the better system.
an opposing team?
As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken dodgeball about a far as we can alone.
does google want to take over anything else?!
I guess you meant to contrast that with the way that Friendster keeps finding new ways to be slow and bug ridden? Seriously, Friendster seems to find new ways to go haywire every time they add features, and their message alert system has been broken for years now. Google may not have done much for Orkut except keep its interface clean and its focus relatively pure. Friendster, on the other hand, looks more like the old school AOL every day.
This will finally help us answer the age-old question: Where can slashdotters find girlfriends? Thank you, Google!
We should discuss this further. Call me. My number's in the phone book.
TOtal integration, all things location-based. Location software is one of the last frontiers we have. Sure their are those that have done stuff like this a while ago, but how many of them have popular integrated features? None I've heard of.
It's a little difficult to singlehandedly (for a person) to do something like that all by themselves.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
It makes sense that Google ventures into more mobile technologies -- as long as it's simple use and it doesn't require you to buy a several hundred dollar mini-computer that's also a phone. [See the /. article on the new Windows Mobile Software.]
:)
My start-up, messagingreminder.com, automatically sends your reminders to your mobile phone from your calendar (Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Sunbird). It's easy to use and it's a great value.
Now, if I could only get Google to buy my start-up...
Synchronize your calendar and mobile phone via text messaging.
what's the use of a system that helps you "meet up with friends who are in the same location"? ... If you are in the same location, haven't you already met up with them?
There's actually doing this to get at his superior foosball technology!
At first glimpse of the title of the article i thought Google had bought rights to the movie Dodgeball hahahahah! But you know what? it would not have surpised me that they did anyways, in fact it would not be far fetched to think they would even buy grocery stores at the rate they are going.
I'm currently searching for new things to 'search' and am hoping Google will buy me ;)
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
to reach your circle of friends. Think about it, is there a better way of direct marketing?
I remember when personal computers were just finding a niche in business, and your choices were an x86 running DOS and a Mac. For us DOS guys, MS was this amazing Sorcerer's Tower in Redmond that kept coming up with newer, better office and personal apps. And we watched in awe as the graphics programs for Windows began to nose up on their Mac counterparts (if not their user base). MS was Great!
Then, somewhere along the line, circa early-mid 90's, somebody looked up and realized how pervasive they were. The Novell and WordPerfect satellites had been completely absorbed into the ever-burgeoning and hungry DeathStar they orbited, and even our phones, PDAs, TV set-top boxes, and browsers began to sport the Brand of the Beast. The backlash began, but the tide was unstem-able. We had become a Microsoft Nation, save for a few cells of Linux revolutionaries and a Mac sub-culture that, by its own choice, would not breed and so could not be counted upon in the long haul.
I am often reminded of the affection I and so many others had for MS 15 years ago, seeing it mirrored here daily in the gushing PR presented as "reporting" on the front page of slashdot. But MS brokered only tools, no matter how empowered those tools made us feel. Google brokers knowledge, and if we don't monitor their growth at least as cynically as we do that of Microsoft, we are fools.
You may be doing a lot more than just checking for their name on the internet. When google starts aggregating information from the internet, Orkut, blogger, gmail, and now dodgeball, under a "peopleranking" algorithm, it will be a very interesting world. Just think about how much power a neighborhood watch group equipped with camera phones can have by using those four services. Throw in google.maps (which I think will eventually use a livestream from Keyhole) and you are approaching Total Information Awareness for citizens. The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see them move their servers into international waters right away.
This post gave me a headache. Don't paraspaek on Slashdot, please.
:-)
Parents don't use disruptive tech very well. I forsee ulcers getting wider... blood pressure rising...
Especially when jr decides to put false locations in his Dodgeball: "@ joe's" when really "@ cindy's" is true.
I remember reading about some guy who said if you want to create some good software just think how people will laid with it. I think that is important to start off the software and get it cranking however the point that fascinates me is other things it could be used for.
You could use this to search for a local off duty cop to help out with a crime that has just happened or even use it to find somebody with some niche knowledge like a scientist to satisfy a question that's buggin' you. Of course this technology probably could be used for nefarious purposes too. But it's potential for good is there for the making.
Agreed they offer some cool stuff for free, but i think they are doing the exact same thing yahoo did which was stop caring about search and spending IPO money on all kinds of other crazy fun things. So yeah, yahoo is a great one stop place to get stock quotes, sports scores etc, but the search went downhill. Same thing with Google...i think they are already behind on the search curve because of new types of searches like Clusty that are much more useful then their current search engine.
Does this mean I have to wrap my cell-phone in tin foil too?
"I worked hard for it. I deserve it. And I have it," Campbell said. "It's all mine."
I could definately see my 16 yr old sis and her friends using this especially if you start designating "cool places to hang out". When you're with a friend or two and you want to meet up with a group of friends, checking this site may be worth while.
They're flying out in every direction because they "constantly innovate". They're rolling out new technologies almost every week, and acquiring new companies just as frequently.
How do all of these acquisitions enhance their bottom line? I cannot imagine a business model based on dodgeball that would be worthwhile for anyone but two dudes in a basement, with mom handling cooking and cleaning.
Are they trying to pioneer the "megacorp through a gigantic portfolio of boutique web service companies" business model?
Google's money-maker is AdSense, and you can make an argument that all of these things enhance AdSense, but how far can you scale this one market? Unless they're going to subsidize all of these cute little services for years off of AdSense revenue, I can see them axing most of these services in a few months.
If I didn't just liquidate my entire stock portfolio 20 seconds ago to put a down payment on a house, I'd probably look into shorting them.
Did you buy that ID on eBay?
...kids willing to pay for an inexpensive, unneeded service just like this.
OT.
This is far from an egregious error. If it fails, it fails. If it succeeds, they reap the rewards.
Profit comes from slow and steady success. Any failure in business is egregious; without strict adherence to this philosophy a company will eventually fail. There is no margin for error.
You said it, not me. It is a stupid, unneeded service. And Google just paid top dollar for it.
Who is more of a fool, the fool, or the fool that fools the fool?
But all my friends are geeks...
And among them, you will know of at least a few people who you want to avoid, because they are lesser geeks. Right?
Ad infinitum.
This brings up an interesting question that I'd like to see a few people comment on. What is the best search engine out there now? I have heard a few talk about Ask Jeeves, and some others.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
Stories really should use the coral cache. Will herecast be next ?
Telefragged friends?
Is this something like Nokia Sensor?
http://www.nokia.com/sensor/
May 12, 2005
Google, the company known primarily for its internet search engine, has announced today that it has acquired a dodgeball. Eric Schmidt, the CEO of the pioneering internet company, made the purchase at a silicon valley sporting goods superstore, Sports Authority, for the sum of $12.95.
"This acquisition will become a cornerstone of our future growth plans," said Schmidt. "In the coming weeks, this dodgeball will be hurled at tremendous speed within the executive offices. It is likely to knock phones, pen holders, and even some of those magnetic paper-clip boxes off of the desks of many employees. This should stir things up, and get our best people thinking either outside of the box, or about looking for another job. The combined one-two punch of increased thinking and lower payroll costs will propel Google forwards into the next century."
Sally Jones, an employee at Sports Authority, said that the transaction went smoothly. "Initially, when we met with Schmidt, we were concerned the acquisition would be a hostile takeover. However, he assured us that his plans for the dodgeball were based on growth and solid corporate fundamentals. The fact that his credit card was not declined was also assuring." Sally says that she recommended the purchase of an air pump to help inflate it, but that Schmidt declined, stating that the company's "[value] is already inflated."
The acquisition comes on the heels of rumours that Microsoft has plans to acquire a badminton set. A Microsoft spokesman was not available for comment.
Old people fall. Young people spring. Rich people summer and winter.
Shutup, I'm eating this food and it tastes really good. How can something that tastes this good be bad for you?
This is going to be huge. Not only are you going to be near a freind, you will be near 3 shops that have ads with google. It may get annoying, but they have to pay for this somehow.
Religion and politics, without the flame. godgab.org
Ah, foregone conclusion then? Last orders please!
...if you're trying to meet up with a forgetful friend who always forgets to take his mobile out with him?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I really like Clusty.com because you can sort things by category, the way the old yahoo directory worked. So if you do a search for say "Paris" it will split the results into groups like "Paris Hilton", "Paris, France", "Paris Casino" etc... Unlike google where you have to either type in a specific phrase that would make the results clear, or wade through tons of useless results.
I have no problem with a Google empire. I would have had no problem with a Microsoft empire, if they hadn't built theirs Robber Baron style.
Google is, so far, the perfect example that you CAN be a successful company and NOT lie, steal, and cheat your way there.
For decades, I've had to deal with MBA types who revered Bill Gates, not because he was a good guy but because he was successful. They didn't care how he did it, they cared that he had done it.
Let Google take over; let them be so pervasive that you can't go anywhere without seeing their brand; AS LONG AS THEY REMAIN THE COMPANY THEY ARE NOW.
I'd rather spend the rest of my life dealing with business oriented types that realize it's possible to get ahead without being backstabbing, manipulative, lying, sacks of excrement than with the ones today that think their actions should only be guided by whether the potential profit outweighs the potential fees if they get caught.
You watched in awe of Windows graphics???
I am often reminded of the affection I and so many others had for MS 15 years ago
I must move in different circles to you because I've never known anyone to feel affection for MS. And I'm talking right back to Bill's first compilers for CP/M.
It would make too much sense to just to call your friends mobile phone to find out where they are.
No sig for you!!
this is not cool folks, this is google setting up the stakes to be the next choice point only deeper inside your life than they imagined. this does not use triangulation it uses the gps chip in most every cell phone these days. IF in the event the theories that GMail scans/reads your mail, for whomever, *evil eye at the patriot act* this is just another step into the complete loss of all privacy. you can mass txt msg already from just about any decent cell phone what is the point in having all this crap? and the "crush alert" thing seems pretty stalker like if you ask me.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft today announced they have purchased a controlling interest in Duck Duck Goose.
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
It seems like companies like these are steps towards giving Google the ability to determine the demographic of an area in near-realtime. Combine this technology with digital Google AdSense billboards, and you have a highly tuned and lucrative offer for advertisers.
When Google takes over the world, we can get rid Step 1 (and maybe even 3).
Google is going to become the premier marketing company in the future. They are really good at providing a service that people want or need, but at the same time, that service also helps them collect data on you. Is this a good or bad thing? I can't really tell yet. However, I just had a flash back to Minority Report where people are getting customer advertisements based on who they are.
Let's look at what google can know about you, if you use all of their services (present and future):
Think about it. I could easily forsee LCD screens on streets, in bars, at your restuarant table which display custom google ads. As soon as you pass by them, your bluetooth enabled phone broadcasts your cell phone number to the receiver which transmits to the Google Person Database. This database spiders out and looks up your most recent searches, your friends searches, other people who search like you, accesses your e-mail indexes, looks up what locations you visit on a regular basis, and gives you a custom advertisement which has the best probability to sell to the thousands of other people who have a similar demographic to you.
I'm starting to think of Google as marketing powerhouse with really smart technology, rather a technology powerhouse with really slick marketing.
I'm struggling to find the answer: What can't Google figure out or make damned good assumptions about you, based on your Google use?
The idea that I'd send text messages every time I entered a new area is silly. Symbian phones can lookup what Cell ID they are connected to and use that for rudimentary positioning. It'd be cooler to have a program that would ping a server whenever I entered a new cell zone, and alert me if my friends are connected to the same cell.
thats just paranoia, new tech bringing us into the future and people get scared... I may asume they (the company beign bought)already have thought of that and have a few solutions for it. On the other hand, googlehacking might get that much more interesting
Overvalued large company buys overvalued small company run by two grad students who use phrases like "angel investor" and "'got' what we were doing. "
The best part is the names of these companies and Dodgeball doesn't disappoint. It captures all the smug flavor of the original boom combined with the ability to jump on short term popular trends that says we could have been called "10-4 Good Buddy" if only we were born at the right time.
With MS all hopped up and agitated now, the sky is going to be the limit once the bidding wars start. God this is going to be really funny to watch for a second time. Must stock up on microwave popcorn.
and will probably be that way the rest of the day.
How much will that cost them?
Running with Linux for over 20 years!
Dens says: "i'm 28. spend my weekends either (a) fixing this website, (b) at the skate park, (c) hungover.
Suspect #2:
alex says: "I'm 28 and I helped make this little site. Grilled meats are totally my favorite."
These guys got bought by Google?? Christ, I thought Google only wanted "geniuses". Surely if these guys, who say on their PR page that they spend "six night a week" in bars can get Bought and cash in, we can all do it! I should have become a webmaster after all :-(
Wait a second, does this mean that in addition to knowing where we're shopping on line, they'll know where we're shopping in physical stores? This is fantastic. Should I give them my social sec. # and blood type as well? : )
Yes, because Google bought its original core technology, Q/Google, the founders used their connections to license their stolen technology to IBM, then the founders wrote an open letter berating the community, and now Google is buying up companies left and right in markets they can't ordinarily compete in because the TWO people at dodgeball pose an ENORMOUS threat.
In the meantime, they're announcing vaporware products years in advance to stop people from buying competing techology, getting lucrative and secret contracts with OEMs ensuring their market dominance, sharing their code with the Chinese while telling the government that opening code would be a security risk, bundling desktop applications with their monopoly on searching the desktop, and plastering the airwaves with incredibly annoying commercials.
Yes, watch them closely! Oh no! They have 30-50% of the search market! I smell an anti-competitive monopoly!
thats why we have a free market. so when one company screws up, we switch to another that we like better. yeah competition.
I find it ironic and maybe it gives me a bit of hope that the american geek crowd is growing up when comparing the concerns expressed here over this topic to the derision dumped on the Bibliothèque Nationale de France when they expressed concern about the digitization of whole libraries by Google.
Sure... Just brows'n around when you notice you girlfriends cell is at your best friend's house. What do you know... His is there too. Yea, that will go over well.
and pegs MSN squarely in the head with it.
That's the fallacy of pseudonymity on the web. Have you ever posted something using your pseudonym from your real IP address? Or used both your real identity and pseudonym while maintaining the same tracking cookie in your web browser? Or leaked personally identifiable semantic information by posting from the same brain (google stylometry)?
Once the two identities are linked by a single careless move (like those mentioned above), your pseudonym is compromised retroactively. You are now personally accountable for everything you thought was done anonymously. Don't think Google won't automate this in the future, if they aren't doing it already...
If the gov't wanted to provide the same service as GOOG, how many people would freak out?
The Wall Street Journal had an article on this a couple weeks ago - apparently the way for meetup sites to make money is to make membership quite exclusive. Not the hoi polloi you find on Friendster. Membership must be approved by N other members, you can be kicked off the service by not being cool enough, not making enough money, not having hot enough dates, etc. Then the service can sell ultrapremium ads.
To paraphrase a great American, I would never join a club that would have me as a member.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Which of these choices you make depends on the validity of "most people"'s problem with the affiliation. If they are grounded and logical, then change yourself. If they are baseless and irrational then hide the affiliation. This is the sad necessity in our mob-rule/group-think society.
Excellent point!
Did you buy that ID on eBay?
Yes.
Finally a tool for all the stalkers and/or psycho ex's out there. It's bad enough to get accused of blocking on AIM by an chick. Oh and thanks for fucking up booty calls forever. Unless Google issues a press release that says "To all the guys out there, relax, we just bought it so we could shut it down." then they can suck it.
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
Dennis Crowley: "Asking people to opt-in with their location is not the slickest way to do what we're doing - we should be using GPS or cellular triangulation or require users to push the magic "I am here" button on their phones - the problem is those things just aren't available yet. Alex and I specifically designed dodgeball to work with the phones that people carry in their pockets today. We always say, "it's no fun to build things that people can't use." The only way to get a critical mass of people using these apps is to focus on lowest-common denominator technologies. For us, that was text messaging."
Yep, you guessed it, on google:
o thel/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/12/google_br
Now that Google acquired Dodgeball, does that mean one of the other team's players is out and Google gets one back?
Did nobody notice the top line of the page? The poster of this story included a Session ID variable in the query string, and apparently dodgeball does a terrible job with security, because now we're all logged in as rekcah5. Wow. Hopefully Google helps out a bit.
1.
2. ???
3. Profit!
This looks remarkably like a real plan
1. Make a good product
2. Get purchased by Google!
3. Profit!
The actual dotcom model was:
1. Make a lot of hot air
2. Get purchased by bigger fool
3. Profit!
You can't go the dotcom model unless you follow step 1. Step 2 was replaced by "???" as the market reached the biggest fools around.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Imagine walking down the street when your phone rings. You answer it only to be greeted by an advertisement for the resturaunt your standing in front of.
I think I will patent a process for contacting other people via phone. I'll assign a certain series of say, 7 to 10 digits, to each phone on the network and allow people to contact other phone users by dialing in just this series of digits. I'll make a mint!