Google bought and killed DodgeBall?

Dodgeball, a start-up mobile+social networking website, was silently bought by Google back in May 2005. Just last week, the two founders left Google disappointed:

It’s no real secret that Google wasn’t supporting dodgeball the way we expected. The whole experience was incredibly frustrating for us – especially as we couldn’t convince them that dodgeball was worth engineering resources, leaving us to watch as other startups got to innovate in the mobile + social space. And while it was a tough decision (and really disappointing) to walk away from dodgeball, I’m actually looking forward to getting to work on other projects again.

This is a bit surprising and from the picture at Flickr, it doesn’t look good either. Last month, when I had a talk with one of the regional executives of Google, I specifically asked him about Dodgeball and how that model was supposed to be viable in the Philippine landscape. I didn’t get a clear answer. So, this is what’s going on in there. Too bad, IMO.

Reminds me. Will MeasureMap suffer the same fate?

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14 Comments

Miguel · 19 years ago

I don’t think Google has made a competitive acquisition. As for the Dodgeballers, I guess Google thinks that the dream life at the Googleplex fits everyone.

Berlin · 19 years ago

sometimes they acquire to kill, like how AOL acquired ICQ in order to make way for IM. I remember when Aol sued Yahoo for copying IM. They lost coz they didn’t patent it. Yahoo still rules.

Blogie · 19 years ago

yeah and if they do acquire for the sake of the talent, then i think Google should heed the talents more than how much they did those dodgeball guys….

but, i suppose the Big G has its objectives, to which we are alas! obviously oblivious.

Andrew · 19 years ago

@Migz: although that sounds nice, it’s a one-sided deal, IMO.

Many analysts and pundits believe that Google buys the smaller companies for the talent, not the product/service.

I think the smaller startups that got bought out got lost in the wake of Google’s more major acquisitions – namely Blogger, Urchin, Writely, Youtube. And now, with the $3 billion Doubleclick purchase, chances are, they will never be given the time of day.