NI-Limits Blog

This is not the first time we have discussed Google Interview questions, but in light of our own recent interviews, we are seriously considering whether or not to adopt some of these (or similar such) questions into our own process:

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

3. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

5. Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.

These are just three of the 17 questions that CSS Juice have listed…

With questions such as these, it is no wonder they have the brain-power needed to take over all of the acquisitions they keep making.

Just this week, the Download Squad reports on their Purchase of Zingku:

Zingku is a mobile social network. Simply put, the service gives users the ability to send and receive text and picture messages between friends. It is a way for trusted friends to send invitations using the standard text messaging service that is available on all mobile devices. The service is also available on the web.

Originally starting up in 2005 and only available in the US, Zingku was in a private beta before being acquired by Google. Now the service is locked down to new users until the full acquisition arrangements have gone through. A price for the acquisition was not disclosed.

And then there’s Jaiku:

Google seems to be intent on making waves. There’s speculation that Google could launch a Facebook-rivaling service on November 5th. Today the company announced that they’ve acquired Jaiku.

Whilst there’s no mention of how much Google paid (all the terms remain confidential), it’s certainly something that’s going to weigh in the minds of rival services such as Twitter (particularly as Twitter has yet to establish its business model). As for what’s next for Jaiku, all the founders will say is ‘Check back in a few months to see what we’ve developed.’

These were purchases that even got Tim O’Reilly into a tiffy-fit:

A lot of the discussion of Jaiku’s acquisition by Google seems to see Jaiku as a competitor to twitter.

For example, Mashable.com says:

This is somewhat surprising news considering the perceived dominance of Twitter in the so-called “lifestreaming” space. Additionally, Twitter is co-founded by Evan Williams, who was the creator of Blogger, which was previously acquired by Google. In a world where price is no object for Google, it’s interesting that they would opt for Jaiku and not Twitter.

The answer seems pretty obvious to me. Jaiku isn’t a “lifestreaming” company per se. They are a mobile company in the business of creating smarter presence applications. Far from being a runner up behind twitter, they are a leader in a category most people haven’t fully grasped yet. Google is clearly thinking a lot about mobile, and so they do grasp it.

However, the Stock Price of US$ 600 per share reported by Mashable continues to prove they know what they are doing:

This new share price is said to be attributed to this wave of investor confidence in Internet advertising technology. In case you were thinking of investing in Google in order to get in on some of this cash-cow funness, analysts have also been predicting that Google could reach the $700 mark next year.

So we’re all watching as Google and Yahoo and Microsoft getting ready to really battle it out on the advertising front.

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