Google, apparently on a shopping spree reminiscient of Sophie Kinsella’s “Shopaholic”, has acquired JotSpot, according to this posting by JotSpotter Joe Kraus on the GoogleBlog. JotSpot, a service that allows for the creation of professional Wikis, actually hasn’t been around for that long, but a seasoned team has paved the way for smooth and rather secret acquisition by Google. Read a review on the service here.

This, of course, is yet another step toward a full-scale online Office product. Word documents, spreadsheets, a calendar, a research tool and of course an email service are now complemented by a service that could manage to actually, well, manage the lot.

Right now nobody is able to sign-up for JotSpot, as they are going to incorporate it into the Google infrastructure first, but according to their FAQ, the previously subscription-based service will then be free for everyone. Yay!

It’s happened! With Google permeating almost every single aspect of our online activities (check out this page for the number of Google services open to the public), it was only a matter of time until they started to impose some sort of regulation on the way we speak as well. After all, linguistics is one frontier they still have to prove their superiority in. From the official Google blog:

A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device that identifies a particular company’s products or services. Google is a trademark identifying Google Inc. and our search technology and services. While we’re pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let’s face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.

They then list correct and incorrect ways of using the term “Google” and “to google”, like this:

Usage: ‘Google’ as verb referring to searching for information via any conduit other than Google.
Example: “I googled him on Yahoo and he seems pretty interesting.”
Our lawyers say: Bad. Very, very bad. You can only “Google” on the Google search engine. If you absolutely must use one of our competitors, please feel free to “search” on Yahoo or any other search engine.

Now, while they managed to pull this off in a semi-humorous way via their blog, it reminds me of Adobe’s efforts to make people use insipid phrases like the following:

CORRECT: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software.

INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

INCORRECT: The image was Photoshopped.

INCORRECT: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped.

I wonder if the language purists at Google object to President Bush’s use of “the Google” as well.

I guess I’ll google Microsoft’s Live Search for reactions. If I’m lucky, I’ll stumble upon some nice photoshopped Bush images in the process.

With AOL, Google, Yahoo and CNet offering image hosting and sharing for very competitive prices, it takes either a lot of guts or a lot of conviction to come out with a new service that does the same.

Kailash Nadd of Commentful and Krun.ch fame (links are to my reviews of these services), two web applications that are simple but effective, today wrote me an email to tell me of his new service Thumbq, a what he calls “trendy, stylish, flexible and free” image hosting and sharing service. Now, I’m not one to to judge trendy and stylish, but it sure is flexible and free.

The sign-up process is quick, you don’t even need to validate your email-address. The service doesn’t have a bulk uploader, so the only way to upload is via a browser upload form:

Once uploaded, your images are automatically cut to various sizes, all of which can be inserted into your website, either with a direct link to the image or a little snippet of Javascript code:

Images can be arranged in collections, and for every image and every collection, an individual URL is created, which you can choose to share with whomever you like (using an “email this page” form):

A slideshow function is included as well, implemented smoothly with a javascript lightbox effect.

The service is rather basic, but that’s actually not a bad thing, considering that it takes about two minutes to set up an account and upload your first image. Website integration works flawlessly (the above images are hosted with Thumbq), and the whole service is rather intuitive.

Whether the service will find a following is not easy to say. Most people who are into photography have accounts with the big social photosites out there (Flickr, Webshots, etc.), and those who are only interested in hosting for their blogs and websites, quite probably use one of the many services listed at the beginning of this posting.

While I do appreciate the effort put into this ambitious little tool, I have serious doubts it will be able to hold out against the big players in this field, unless it can be leveraged as the quick and easy solution for people who don’t have much time and want to get things done without too much hassle. Whew, what a sentence.