Google hires team from online content sharing service Kifi

The deal appears to be an 'acquihire' by Google, in which the team from Kifi joins it, without the Internet giant acquiring the company.

Google rolled out its Spaces small-group sharing tool in May for Android, iOS, desktop and the mobile web, which made it easy to find and share articles, videos and images without leaving the app, as Google Search, YouTube, and Chrome came built in. Others could be invited to share content on the space through email, messaging or a social network.

“Our team will be joining the Spaces team at Google to build solutions focused on improving group sharing, conversation, and content finding,” Kifi said on its website.

Google confirmed that the Kifi team was joining its Spaces team, but did not provide details.

Kifi informed its users that its service and data will not become part of Google. Users will be able to use Kifi for the next few weeks, after which they will still be able to export their data for a few weeks.