Google acquired JotSpot in October 2006. Sixteen months ago. In the web 2.0 world how many companies have been formed, financed and sold in that time? All Google had to do is integrate an existing fully-finished product. Something is seriously amiss.

Wikis are not search. Yes, search is difficult to do as a provider, but from a user’s point of view if Google search doesn’t work then we just use a different search engine. Wikis and other collaborative software are curious in that they are the opposite: it is realtively easy to be a wiki company, but having access to a reliable product is extemely important to the wiki user. Wikis are highly valuable because of the value of the information and collective intellegence they contain. As a user I can switch search engines in a second, but it takes quite a bit of effort to switch wikis. For an enterprise user, switching wikis may take weeks and thousands in porting and reprogramming.

With JotSpot Google enters a new world, where businesses must be assured that Google will not leave them technologically stranded. How many customers had substantial amounts of data in JotSpot last October, and left it there because of Google’s continued promises of “any day now”? These customers are still there, without the ability to add projects or databases, without support, without even an official word of a release date. This go-in-dark-mode-without-a-word for sixteen months is exactly what businesses do not want for any collaboration or database product.

Google has taken their first real software opportunity and shot themselves in the foot. First impressions are hard to shake, especially when the first impression goes on for sixteen months.