Fast forward past the Google acquisition to the present day, and Jaiku is all but dead. Dead to the point that Engestrom -- who joined Google as part of the deal -- has quit to work on new projects, leaving Jaiku floundering on the floor in a project room somewhere at Google HQ. I won't delve into the story that lead up to Jaiku's death, but let's think about what Jaiku could have meant to Android.

It could have been one of a few key elements that connected Android users to each other, and more importantly for Google, to the OS itself. An always-connected, forever modulating portal that transformed the static phonebook of old into a window overlooking an expanse of social communication. The vision: To combine information from popular social platforms like FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter with a more robust set of features available only to Android users by way of Jaiku (or Google's rebranded version of Jaiku, rather). Google's offering could have been the steroid-injected love child of Sony Ericsson's Timescape, Foursquare and BlackBerry Messenger. And we're not talking Barry Bonds steroids here. We're talking Noah Steere steroids.

Google had the perfect basis with which to create a core feature of its mobile OS that would have nurtured deep connections between the OS and the user. How? By revolutionizing social communication and combining it with a feature rich Android-to-Android messaging and social data sharing mechanism, thus enabling seamless interaction across platforms. The outside social network integration (the foundation for which was already there, in the form of Jaiku's ability to pull in feeds from any source) would have made Google's mobile OS the ultimate social networking OS, and Android-only elements -- enhanced messaging, image and file sharing, automatic location and status updating, etc -- would have sealed the deal. Users would not only have a great reason to buy Android phones, they would be hooked.

The missed opportunity is significant.

Let's look at a quick example of why such a service could have been important to Google. With the flurry of new and exciting smartphones (and platforms) that have been introduced over the past few years, many consumer-level BlackBerry users have been faced with a tough decision -- embrace modern, new and flashy platforms, or stick with aging BlackBerry OS devices. This is the same challenge Symbian users have been faced with, but Nokia's smartphone market share has taken a hit while BlackBerry reach continues to expand. Why?

The reasons for this are numerous of course, but one of the factors that makes users slow to abandon their BlackBerrys is the deep ties RIM has created between its platform and its users. Take BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), for example. This BlackBerry-only messaging platform is little more than an IM app on the surface. Sure, the slightly enhanced features like delivered/received/read message status are great, but the real value is that BBM creates a bond between the user and the OS. The user could choose to ditch BlackBerry for an iPhone, but then all of his or her BlackBerry-toting contacts are no longer accessible through the 'exclusive' BBM club because this user will no longer be a member. Believe it or not, countless consumer-level BlackBerry users I've spoken with over the past year have cited BBM as the sole reason they haven't parted with their BlackBerrys to purchase more flashy devices.

Like BlackBerry Messenger does for RIM, Google's creation of a Jaiku-based service would have made it very difficult for people to leave Android for another OS. It would have been a unique offering that could have created a bond between Android users and their phones. More over, it would have built a bridge that joined each individual to every other Android user, thus creating a real community.

Instead, Google is leaving Android's flagship features and differentiating functionality entirely in the hands of the manufacturers. MOTOBLUR is great, the Sense UI is fantastic and Sony Ericsson's UX looks amazing, but these are all walls in the Android ecosystem -- not bridges.

Contact Zach Epstein via email or follow @zacharye on Twitter