Dogpatch Labs resident Appjet - makers of the the collaborative, realtime document editor EtherPad - has been acquired by Google. As announced on their blog, AppJet will be joining the Google Wave team and "the EtherPad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration." Congratulations to the entire team!
Etherpad is a unique product and an engineering feat: it allows "really real-time" collaboration where users can create, edit and converse in documents at the same time. The applications are obvious and range from education to note taking (several Dogpatch Labs events were covered via Etherpad) to product planning (used during the Rails Rumble competition).
The fit within Google - and particularly with Wave - is natural: according to Techcrunch, "The two products share some overlapping features, but AppJet has built technology that can be deployed behind company firewalls. If Google ever decides to roll out Wave as an enterprise product, which seems logical, this technology and the team’s experience could prove valuable."
The Etherpad team is excellent and comprised of a cluster of ex-Googlers: CEO Aaron Iba, CTO J.D. Zamfirescu, and COO Daniel Clemens. They are sharp, savvy, hard working (an understatement) and highly collaborative with other entrepreneurs. They will be missed around Dogpatch Labs - but they will certainly add great value to Google and the Wave product.
a comment on TechCrunch's initial article... from another Dogpatch Labs resident:
More coverage: TechCrunch: Confirmed: Google Acquires AppJet, The Maker Of EtherPad Venturebeat: Google acquires AppJet. Maybe Wave will become usable now GigaOm: Google Buys EtherPad Maker for Google Wave