Google News Aplenty

I’ve been out for some of this week, only to return to a flurry of events in the Googleverse. (What else is new?) In case you missed it too, here are some of the more notable items.

Continuing its hot acquisition streak (the company has digested 23 companies total), Google started the week by acquiring JotSpot, which has developed a popular consumer grade wiki creation engine. This is one indication Google is moving further down the social media path, which is ripe for development in its many online properties. In this case it will integrate the collaborative work capabilities of JotSpot’s wiki creation engine with Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Apps for Your Domain and Google Groups.

Google also announced a free downloadable Gmail client for mobile devices. It will be available as a Java application and include features such as attachment resizing for mobile screens and 5x greater speed than accessing Gmail from a mobile browser (the product’s previous version).

RBC Capital Markets analyst David Bank also noted this week the increased hiring activity around Google’s radio ad sales force (dMarc) in key urban markets. Given Google’s current dearth of radio ad inventory, this could be a sign that the company is planning to make a big acquisition of prime radio inventory soon. An interesting development that is worth watching closely.

And there has been lots of talk about the legal issues that Google has inherited with its recent YouTube purchase. The company has begun to throw money at the problem, according to Paid Content. The Washington Post also took a good look at YouTube’s value and legal liabilities.

Lastly, from the Friday humor department, Steven Colbert of all people weighs in on the Google/YouTube issue, and some of these related legal issues. He starts off noting “analyst buzzing” about the deal itself. I wonder if he read our blog post.