

Bumptop acquired by Google - thehodge
http://bumptop.com/

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ThomPete
This is quite puzzling to me.

I played around with Bumptop a little bit when it came out but I have to say
that I quickly removed it as I found it to add no value what so ever.

If anything this seems more like a talent acquisition than a technology
acquisition.

~~~
mikeryan
(could also an IP Acquisition)

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mhp
Google may be having trouble finding good programmers. The Aardvark
acquisition and this one as well may have just been an expensive way to get
some good people.

If you look at the HN thread about which companies are hiring, you'll see it's
basically every single tech company under the sun right now.

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enomar
For those (like me) that don't know what Bumptop is...
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Rm4jSRB...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Rm4jSRBfissJ:bumptop.com/features.php+site:bumptop.com+bumptop+feature+tour&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iPF39PX...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iPF39PXvUeYJ:bumptop.com/+bumptop&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

~~~
eelco
In that light, the TED presentation from a couple of years ago is also
interesting:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/anand_agarawala_demos_his_bumptop_d...](http://www.ted.com/talks/anand_agarawala_demos_his_bumptop_desktop.html)

At least it seemed very entertaining to the TED crowd, they're mostly
laughing.

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jjonte
A Bumptop-like interface would be pretty sweet on a tablet device running
Chrome. This probably more a talent acquisition than a technology one -
Bumptops's engineers have spent a lot of time thinking about UI metaphors and
testing theories around them.

~~~
dave1619
Bumptop on an Android tablet would be sweet.

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cmelbye
Can't figure out why they're not just giving away the BumpTop Pro option. The
crippled BumpTop free version is almost pointless with its limit of two sticky
notes.

~~~
thehodge
Well, the product has been out just over/under a year, If I'd paid for a
digital product and less than a year later I'm told that I've got just a week
to download it forever and there will be no further updates, I'd be pretty
pissed.

Then to find out something I paid (even just last week) for was then given
free to everyone else..

~~~
ugh
Why would that annoy you? I’m always puzzled by that sentiment – it doesn’t
hurt you in any way if others could download it for free, it doesn’t change
anything for you. That’s pure jealousy, isn’t it?

~~~
thehodge
Its the same feeling I get when I buy something and the next day its on sale
for 50% off or when steam has one of its mega sales when I just bought the
damn game..

or pretty much anytime I buy an apple product.

~~~
fnid2
I once worked for a product company that started out charging a lot for its
product. They began to struggle finding new customers for their product
because it cost so much. I said, "Why can't you just decrease the price?"

The reason was because they didn't want to anger their existing customer base
who had already paid a lot.

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fnid2
Since we don't know what the price is, Google might have paid a sum for the
product that is simply less than it would cost them to rebuild it themselves.
Plus, they get the press for the acquisition and a talented, happy new member
of the team.

If it would take them 3 engineers and a year to build bumptop and they paid
$200,000 for it, then everyone wins.

~~~
_delirium
I agree how much they paid is important in evaluating the purchase (the less
they paid, the more justifiable it'd be to buy it just for some talent and in
the off chance some of the ideas/tech/IP turned out to be useful). But I doubt
it's anything as low as $200k, because they had VC funding of a few million,
and presumably the VCs wouldn't sign off on selling for a loss. This article
estimates $40m, though they may have just pulled that number out of thin air:
[http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/05/02/google-purchases-
bum...](http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/05/02/google-purchases-bumptop-
freeform-desktop-coming-android-os/)

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LiveTheDream
_...we've been acquired by Google...For the next week, we're keeping BumpTop
Free available for download to give BumpTop fans one last chance to grab a
copy._

That is one hell of a great way to get a huge boost in downloads :)

EDIT: link to download page <http://eol.bumptop.com/download.php>

~~~
brfox
The download is really slow right now, does anyone have an alternate download
location?

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thehodge
Could the technology become part of the android platform, I find it strange
that they've just cut off updating the desktop clients and from next week
won't even support / let you download them again..

~~~
mikecane
Probably more likely aspects of it are headed to Chrome OS. Recalling the
demos, I didn't see anything applicable to wee screens like phones.

~~~
alecthomas
Agreed.

BumpTop with a touch based interface would be much more appealing than a
mouse. Seems like a good fit.

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sfriedrich
Hmm, am I the only one that had fleeting thoughts that Bumpits had been bought
by google?

<http://www.bighappiehair.com/>

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Colin-DeVries
Does anybody know how much google paid? TheNextWeb says its $40 Milion but
that number is unconfirmed.

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sscheper
Hrmmm. This strategy sounds dangerously familiar.

Making Money? Who cares... Just buy shit that looks cool.

~~~
enomar
I think its been shown before that Google (and others) often buy for the
talent as much as the product.

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Gibbon
How has that strategy worked out for them?

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chwahoo
Are you suggesting it hasn't?

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Gibbon
Mostly they dump bucketloads of money into projects that disappear into
blackholes, or morph into other products that are dubiously successful.

As far as talent goes, the Dodgeball founders left, Jaiku founders left,
Panoramio, Blogger and Feedburner founders left. That's off the top of my
head, there's probably a lot more.

Seems like an expensive and unreliable way to do bulk hires.

~~~
_delirium
I don't entirely disagree, but I think some of the ones you mention weren't
talent acquisitions. My guess is that, despite the founders leaving, Google is
still happy with its Blogger and Feedburner purchases, and they at least sort
of integrate into its larger web of services (and data collection).

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jasonlbaptiste
Nice. Chromeos touch UI will be sweet now. I called this while shooting the
shit a month ago.

