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Getting bought by Google is one thing (or, more accurately, up to 1.65 billion things), but a company doesn't really belong to the family until it's been properly adopted. That's why Dodgeball, the three-man startup that lets users mass-text each other from bars or restaurants, seemed like a foster child after Google bought it and seemingly abandoned it. But this week that changed.

Dodgeball seems like a perfect acquisition. Users "check in" from registered locations to tell their friends where they are. As a result, Dodgeball's system knows where masses of people are (or say they are) at any moment. It seems like a perfect service to integrate with Google Maps, Google Calendar, and other products, but since Google bought Dodgeball last May, little has changed.

Yesterday, though, blogger Chris Messina noticed that Google is integrating Dodgeball accounts with Google/Gmail/Gcal accounts. That's a good step toward really turning Dodgeball into a part of the Google mesh.

Of course, it's scary too. If the contextual ads on Gmail seemed invasive, just imagine how bad they'll get when Google knows you checked in from the strip club last night.

Dodgeball goes Gauth [Factory Joe]
Dodgeball.com [Front page]