Google Buys Sparrow to Refresh Gmail

Google Buys Sparrow to Refresh Gmail

No significant upgrades to the Mac and iOS e-mail client Sparrow are planned; team will work on new projects, Google says.
By Lex Friedman, Macworld Jul 20, 2012
Software developer Sparrow, maker of the popular Mac and iOS e-mail clients of the same name, announced on Friday that it has been acquired by Google, and that the Sparrow team will be joining forces with the search giant.

A Google spokesperson told Macworld, “The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their email client. We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.”

Sources tell Macworld that while Google will continue to support Sparrow’s apps, and provide updates related to security and bug fixes, there are no plans to provide significant updates to those apps. Sparrow had reported a couple months back that it was hard at work on an iPad version of the app, which has yet to be released.

On Sparrow’s blog, CEO Dom Leca writes that Sparrow is “joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision -- one that we think we can better achieve with Google.”

Though Google isn’t yet saying which products the Sparrow team will work upon, one wonders whether perhaps the company hopes to use its freshly-acquired apps to improve the rather unloved Gmail app for iOS.