“All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him.” — Sun Tzu

Seems like the folks over at Twitter have not read the ‘Art of War’ by Sun Tzu because it seems that Google has quietly been putting things in place to take on Twitter. Have you heard of Google Reader? Probably not. It’s not getting much press, but if you look closer, you will see they added a “Notes” feature which feels a lot micro-blogging (Twitter).

When you type in a note, your message is shared with all your Google Talk friends. This reminds me a lot like micro-blogging. The interesting thing is that Google has done two things. 1) Purchased Jaiku. This has made everyone focus on Jaiku as being the “Twitter Killer” considering the 800 pound gorilla Jaiku has behind them and 2) Google Talk is integrated with Twitter so you can send out your “tweets” to everyone on your contact list. Could this friendly alliance actually be something else? Is Google actually trying to get as much user and traffic data from Twitter to improve their own service? (Google Reader). You be the judge, but I find it odd that there has been almost zero news and/or buzz about Google Reader. I guess only time will tell what Google’s true intentions are, but if I was Twitter, I would be very careful and would definitely pick up a copy of ‘Art of War’ and read every page.