“As you might have heard earlier today, Google made another acquisition — the email search startup reMail,” MG Siegler reports for TechCrunch. “While its topical description may make it seem like an obvious buy, there’s another layer that makes this really interesting. reMail isn’t just any email search startup, it’s a startup working to perfect email search on the iPhone. Or rather, it was.”
Siegler reports, “Here’s the key part of reMail founder Gabor Cselle’s post about the acquisition today: ‘Google and reMail have decided to discontinue reMail’s iPhone application, and we have removed it from the App Store.’ Yep, it looks like this may be another battle in the Apple-Google mobile war.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: One down, only 157,512 to go.
@MDN Take
And counting…
Micro$oftish!
Sorry, but I just don’t get it. Is it Google’s plan to buy up every iPhone app and discontinue it? I don’t think so. So why pull reMail? How was it a competitor in any way to Google? How will the iPhone suffer by losing this app (won’t someone else just make an app with the same functionality if the demand is there)?
Somehow this just doesn’t add up…
I hate this kind of Microsoftian “competition”.
Apple can just extend Spotlight for iPhone.
Google better think hard before launching an all out war with Apple…
Besides what Apple could do to really put the screws to Schmidt and Co, there is consequential damage that could be a lot worse and substantial : Apple has the biggest fanfare form it’s users that are the industry envy in loyalty and support.
Piss them off Google and you stand to loose a huge chunk of your base friendly and supportive users – Google would be well advised to not alienate this army of users who …Think Different
Apple needs to do a refresh of Safari, deleting Google as a default search engine.
Maybyy they’ve killed it just to reName it and release it under a new name, reGoogle
So r there commerce laws in place to deter giants like Google from buying all the app companies and shutting them down to hurt Apple? Hmmm
* lose (not loose)
Maybe Google is going to change the app before re-releasing it?
We really don’t know what’s going to happen.
But but but but… Google are so OPEN! I’m sure they’ll blog all about this, and let us know precisely why they did this. And I’m sure there was a very good reason, which had absolutely nothing to do with all that nasty old business stuff.
It’s a good thing Google isn’t closed and secretive like that evil Apple company. Google gives us tons of stuff for free, they must be good! All praise Google!
MW: faith
Google bought reMail as a defensive move. Last thing they want is for Apple to get access to reMail technology and have Apple own search engine.
I am becoming more and more convinced that Apple needs a major play in the cloud space to continue building great products.
I like to think that in the background, Apple is working on an alternative search engine itself to take the place of Google…
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
appaulmac – doubt it. Otherwise they’d be hiring search specialists.
evil.empire v2.0
This just goes to show how naive Google is in so many ways. The company rarely thinks about its actions before taking them. The Buzz fiasco has yet to simmer down and now they are doing this deal with reMail.
reMail is an App that maybe 1 in a 1000 iPhone owners knew about. Google may have very noble plans for improving and re-releasing the App. But by acquiring and yanking the App they have now have another public relations disaster. Somebody at Google needs to get a handle on reviewing public response to their actions before they take them.
Botvinnik: Apple needs to do a refresh of Safari, deleting Google as a default search engine.
Yup, and changing it to Ixquick would really piss Google off.
@Dmitri
Who says they don’t already have them?
I could picture apple coming out with their own search engine.. though google is so good at it and so huge it would seem odd to remove it. I use google all the time for everything.. I used to use yahoo and ask.. never ever bothered with any microsoft search engine… even when I was 100% microsuck and anti mac..”that was many years ago.. I am wise now :D”
So much for “Do no evil”.
I think differently. While many of you perceive a war going on between Google and Apple, I think the acquisition of reMail is a very careful move by Google.
Google might know something we don’t. iPhone 4.0 is coming out soon, possibly in March. Apple may improve Spotlight dramatically to incorporate the kind of features reMail had. Its quite possible reMail (with insight from Google) saw the writing on the wall and bailed early.
The search function reMail had was nice, but one thing everyone may be overlooking is reMail’s ability to use much less space for storing emails (500MB for 100,000 emails), or its ability to view and search emails offline—particularly gmail.
Google’s reason for acquiring reMail is obvious: Android. Apple can incorporate reMail’s core features into Spotlight easily. Google might want reMail to bolster its search capabilities in Android.
It is also quite possible that Google might simply rebadge and retool reMail and release it again under its own branding.
People are too quick to assume there is anything more then friendly competition between Google and Apple. Competition isn’t a bad thing. Monocultures are.
One more thing. We are treading down a dangerous course of extremism in this country. Everyone is busy taking sides in wars these days: Republicans versus Democrats, Muslims versus Christians, Apple versus Microsoft, Yankees versus Red Sox, etc. And the new extremist view is Apple versus Google.
This way of thinking is tearing apart the fabric of our nation. Have we no tolerance for opposing views? Does everyone have to love the iPhone? Is medical insurance a right or privilege? Should we hope Windows 7 fails? Should we ban abortion? Should everyone buy a Mac? Are the Yankees evil?
Stop worrying about how many people think like you do. You don’t need an iPhone to be cool or popular. You don’t need to take a stand against Microsoft. You can boo the Yankees every time they play, but you don’t have to HATE them. Why can’t Apple, Microsoft and Google offer products and services that compete with one another? Because you want everyone to think like you do? Are you right? Is everyone else exactly like you? Should they be?
Take the partisan lenses off your eyes and look at your “enemies” with some objectivity. There is room in this world for all of us, our beliefs and our consumer choices too.
Jorge Lourenco”
Hear Hear
@ Jorge Lourenco – You’re trying wayyyyyyyy too hard to act like you’re above the fray with your off-topic comments.
And you’re glossing a bit too quickly over the fact that Google bought a company and then killed its iPhone app – which, if it’s not a Microsoftian move, it sure looks like it so far. Your attempts to justify this merely confirm that Google wants their tech exclusively for their own mobile platform.
And I think you’re being ridiculously naive in assuming that Apple can “easily” incorporate reMail’s features into Spotlight. If it was that “easy”, then why didn’t Google do it themselves, instead of buying a company?
With Apple and Google competing directly in more and more areas, it’s a legitimate question as to how long this competition will remain “friendly”.
@Jorge Lourenco
Wow. An intelligent voice here? Refreshing. I rush to agree with you by the way.