Google has bought JotSpot, a 3-year-old company for enterprise and consumer wikis and other collaboration tools based on wikis. JotSpot co-founder and CEO Joe Kraus (also co-founder of Excite) explained the deal in blog post Tuesday morning, saying that being part of search giant Google will give JotSpot access to “world-class” data centers and engineers.
Google’s efforts to offer hosted applications, such as word processors and spreadsheets, mesh with JotSpot’s strategy to build online productivity applications, Kraus wrote.
Staci adds: I was intrigued by JotSpot early on, tested the early versions and even spent some time in its sparse Palo Alto offices.  I tried to get various people interested in using it but they inevitably passed after a few tries. It wasn’t simple enough or streamlined enough. I suspect that’s one reason it never quite got the traction that seemed possible back in late 2004. As configured now, it makes sense for Google and should fit into the Web apps suite with some tweaking.