An Bui, Spelled An With 1 N

Of the multiple Google Maps and Twitter mashups out there for Super Tuesday, the one that got me thinking was the one from Google and Twitter especially given the question asked by Valleywag, “but what about Jaiku?”

What about Jaiku?

For those not in the know, Jaiku positions itself as “an activity stream and presence sharing service that works from the Web and mobile phones.” Jaiku, Ltd. was founded in February, 2006 by Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen from Finland, and was aquired by Google in fall 2007. Jaiku’s service is very similar to Twitter’s.

So why the mashup with Twitter and Google, not Jaiku and Google?

Valleywag theorizes: “What this tells us: Jaiku, which has a much smaller and more European user base than Twitter, isn’t really doing it for Google…” Perhaps. Perhaps this is true. The question is - why?

An Bui’s Theory on Jaiku’s User Base:

1. Jaiku’s userbase is more European because it started in Finland. I’ll analogize to the correlation between Facebook’s userbase and education level. Facebook’s userbase tends to have a higher education level because Facebook started out of Harvard. Also, Super Tuesday is about US politics. The number of Europeans who care to report about US politics is probably not as high as the number of Americans who care to report about US politics.

2. Jaiku’s userbase is smaller because it’s in closed beta. You need an invitation to join. I don’t have one. I’d like to get one, but haven’t, hence no review about Jaiku yet. I’m interested in getting one though, if anyone wants to invite me.
I think the mashup for Super Tuesday paired Twitter and Google because Jaiku’s userbase wasn’t the target market. That the Jaiku userbase is smaller is an immaterial fact. A Super Tuesday mashup could have served as an opportunity to sign up more users for Jaiku. To say that Jaiku isn’t really doing it for Google is a leap of logic I’m not comfortable making.

**update** Check out Vanessa Fox and her post on search engine land about the Web and 2008 Elections, which addresses not just the mashup, but also videos, trends, and use of SEO.

On an unrelated note - Happy Mardi Gras everyone!