Goodbye Dodgeball and Others
I just read Google has decided to shut down or stop enhancing a slew of services (via ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch). I completely understand the need for Google to do this in these economic times but the two particular services I mentioned in the title are what really concern me.
When I first heard about Dodegball in the first half of this decade I thought it was a brilliant concept. For those not familiar with Dodgeball it is a geosocial networking site that used your cellphone to let others know where you were and to alert you when other people you knew were nearby (similar to Brightkite and Loopt). Mobile phones were becoming more and more powerful and connected. Social networking was in it’s infancy and starting to look like a fledgling technology that would bring people together on the web.
The biggest drawback with Dodgeball is it only supports major cities (and only a few of those) in the US. Living 200 miles away from the closest supported city wasn’t going to do anything for me. When Google purchased it I thought finally they can expand it to include the entire US. I was pretty disappointed that nothing ever came of it and the service looks to have stayed stagnant since the purchase 4 years ago.
In 2008 I got introduced to Brightkite and I haven’t looked back since. Brightkite is what Dodgeball should of been. Brightkite uses Google’s map data to do it’s lookups which I found hilariously ironic. Why didn’t Google do this? Who knows but I think they missed out on a huge opportunity. They were the first kids on the block in my eyes and just failed to take it anywhere.
I wonder why does a company like Google buy small companies like Dodgeball, Jaiku, and Grandcentral and not expand upon them and let them die? At least it looks like Grandcentral hasn’t hit the deadpool just yet so maybe will see some improvements to that service.
Originally published at 716ink.com - A Creque Joint. You can comment here or there.