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Google buys a startup to improve Spaces

The acquisition of Kifi may be an admission that Google's group-focused service needs work.

It's no secret that Google Spaces in its current incarnation is... undercooked. The group-oriented app missing features you might expect from an internet giant, and those features that are there don't always behave like you'd expect. Google is in it for the long haul, though. It just bought Kifi, a startup that focuses on internet-based collaboration and sharing. The Kifi team isn't shy about what it'll be doing -- it's joining the Spaces team to improve its underlying features. While you'll probably have to wait some time to see what that entails, it's clear that Spaces isn't going to wither from neglect.

It's not the greatest news if you use Kifi's existing knowledge management service, mind you. It'll keep the lights on for the "next few weeks," but no longer. You'll have another few weeks after that to grab any data you couldn't afford to lose. And there's a chance you might miss it -- Kifi is in use everywhere from AOL (our parent company) to Calvin Klein and HP, so it's not a flash in the pan.