Coming Soon to a Google Apps Near You: Wikis
It looks like Google will shortly be adding a wiki to their web office application suite. Google acquired JotSpot, a provider of hosted wikis, last October, and signs now point to a re-launch of the service as Google Wiki. Google Blogoscoped noticed that "jotspot" is now a Google Apps service code, and if you try to log in to the service you're treated with a rather poorly-sized Google Wiki logo.
Google said in July that it would be adding JotSpot to Google Apps, so this doesn't come as much of a surprise. The Google Operating System blog speculates that the launch will be timed with an announcement at this weekend's Office 2.0 event in San Francisco.
Last week, Richard MacManus wrote that the core products of a web office suite, are email, calendar, word processing, spreadsheets and presentation. Google, which this year acquired two companies working on presentation apps, will soon offer a suite that has all of those components. By adding wiki support to Google Apps, the company will be extending their web office with a product that could only be delivered on the web (remember, Richard's web office definition said that an online office package must extend "the functionality of desktop office suites ... by using Web Native features.")
Certainly Google Apps is not as comprehensive as Zoho's suite, but adding wikis and presentations will put it on firm footing in the web office wars and extends it into areas that Microsoft Office does not tread.
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I have been a strong advocate of wikispaces, yet we use and then embed a vast array of online tool in our wiki; either as gadgets or code. Adding wikis to the Google quiver is another tick in Google's list. I am on their email list so time will tell.
I still wonder why google bought jotspot. 4000 PhD's can't make a wiki? Or two guys with GFS, BigTable and a weekend? (Sure JS was way more polished than that, but GOOG only releases beta stuff anyway.)
And from what I understand, jotspot didn't have many customers--putting them on ice for a year didn't help that number grow, either.
So no offense, but personally I wouldn't call it adding to Google's quiver. I would give a high-5 to jotspot and say, "Way to go guys! Niiice sales work."
I am a wiki addict myself, though I read somewhere they were coming up with their own search engine. How will that affect Google Wiki?