We’re hearing that Google is in talks to acquire Katango, the Kleiner-backed startup that uses algorithms to automatically sort your friends into different groups, with very little effort required on the user’s part (see our full post on their launch here).
Katango would be a very obvious fit for Google (in fact, we hear that Google has been interested in the company since they launched in July). Why? Because Google+ revolves around grouping your friends into different Circles, be it acquaintances, family members, and so on. But at this point, while Google+ is great at telling you who you might know, it doesn’t suggest to you which of these Circles to put them in.
It may also make a lot of sense for Katango to take the deal. At launch the service was tightly integrated with Facebook Connect, but Facebook recently rolled out Smart Lists, which do basically the same thing (and Facebook has more data at its disposal to generate its lists).
Katango has raised $2 million so far. We reached out to the startup and haven’t heard back yet — we’ll update when we do.
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
