Google Buys JotSpot

Google continues to roll on with another acquisition. It just gobbled up JotSpot. And now the wiki service will be free and integrated with the rest of Google's suite of web-based applications.

JotSpot seems like a good fit for Google. Unlike Socialtext, JotSpot has been moving away from the enterprise and more towards basic online consumer services. Witness for example their class reunion product and future planned launches.

Google seems to be building out an array of basic Web-based applications. One would think they are doing this to create more inventory for serving ads - but they haven't yet. The question is will people want ads inside their apps? Otherwise, how will Google monetize these sites? (Disclosure: Microsoft, which competes with Google, is an Edelman client.)