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."

Comments

Re:people search

[grub]

I bet you'll see a google map (or satellite photo if that area is covered) with an overlay of where your friends are. It wouldn't be that hard.

(hey, Google could get into the cell business and triangulate you from its towers. Now that IS getting evil.)

Interesting direction google is taking.

[the_mutha]

If I'm not mistaken, the first service that google launched that was able to help you keep track of your friends was Orkut. Orkut has been hugely successfull here in Brazil. So much so, to the point where a lot of people have closed their accounts because of security concerns.

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.

• Orkut
  
• Google maps
  
• Dodgeball
  

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.

Re:Funny, Yes, but not funny for Google.

[donweel]

Here's a scenario for you. Me and a friend were out sportbike riding around MtBaker, we were into some twisties I was slightly behind my buddy. I look to the left and see a group of fellow Canadians at the side of the road it looks like there's a problem. I start flashing my hi beam and honking my horn but my partner is in Ducati World and sees nothing but the next corner to attack. So I turn around and figure he will notice sooner or l8tor and turn around. It turns out This fellow lost it in a corner, he was ok but his vfr was bent, we straightened the front end as best we could, then they headed back home and I continued on to hook back up with my partner. I checked the restaurant at the parking lot of the ski hill but while I was there my partner went by the other way. I never found him. by the time was able to get him on his phone he was back at the border and I was having lunch at the next tavern. If we could have stopped and located each other using this it would have been a better day.