Skip to main content

Google Buys Zingku Mobile Social Networking

Google Buys Zingku Mobile Social Networking

Internet giant Google appears to have acquired something from mobile social networking outfit Zingku—although whether that means the entire company or just selected assets and technology remains unclear.

Zingku is a mobile social networking service which enables users to share photos, information, polls and other bits of data (like blog enteries) that can easily be transfered to via instant messaging, text messages, and/or a Web browser, with the idea of integrated users mobile activities with a personalized Web site. Users can select to have information shared with a circle of friends, or expand that out to friends-of-friends. Zingku’s technology doesn’t require any special software to run, and has been operating in a private beta mode for some time.

Zingku says it has suspended new account signups pending the Zingku acquisition, and, unless users opt out, will transfer existing user accounts to Google on October 4.

It’s not clear whether Google’s interest in Zingku comes from a desire to create innovative featured for the much-rumored Google phone reportedly in development, or whether Google also wants to tap into the “shameless commerce” aspects of Zingku’s service in which merchants could offer Zingku users access codes to special services and offers, which in turn could be shared with friends.

Editors' Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
5 phones you should buy instead of the OnePlus 12
A person holding the OnePlus 12.

The OnePlus 12 is OnePlus' latest smartphone, and it's a true return to form for the "flagship killer." It's big and beautiful, with a distinctive design that leans away from the default "big glass slab" you might be tiring of. It's powerful, too, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, two-day battery life, and some of the fastest charging speeds you'll find on a phone on the U.S. market. It's easily one of the best phones you can buy, with a starting price of $800.

But is it the best? It might not be, depending on what you're actually looking for. There are a number of smartphones with similar levels of power, beauty, and features — and varying reasons why you'd pick them over OnePlus' current flagship.

Read more
Best Buy Memorial Day sale: early TV, laptop, and appliance deals
Digital Trends Best Buy Prime Day Deals Alt

While Memorial Day is still several days away, there are a lot of excellent early Memorial Day deals you can pick up right now from Best Buy. That includes everything from the best TVs, the best Phones, the best Air Fryers, and even the best smart home devices out there, so you have a huge variety of deals to pick from. Of course, there is an overwhelming number of options out there, which is why we've scoured Best Buy for our favorite deals in various categories and collected them all below, so be sure to check out everything in detail.

Best Best Buy Memorial Day TV Deals

Read more
This is the one AI feature from Google I/O 2024 I can’t wait to use
Google Photos app on a Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Google’s main I/O 2024 keynote was jam-packed with a ton of new AI features that are coming to desktop and mobile, thanks to Gemini. There will be new ways to search Google through video and multimodal prompt requests, while smartphones eventually get AI superpowers through the camera with Project Astra.

But there’s one feature that really stuck out to me: Ask Photos with Gemini in Google Photos.
First, what is Gemini?

Read more