14 DAY TRIAL // Google has acquired Instantiations a company specializing on Java and Ajax development tools. One particularly popular product has been its Google Web Toolkit (GWT) Designer, a tool which enables developers to create GWT apps using the open-source Eclipse IDE. The tool was probably the core interest for Google, but the team’s expertise with AJAX and Java development tools surely helped.
“Instantiations’ award-winning Java and Ajax development tools and our incredible Eclipse team have been acquired by Google. We are all very excited about taking our technology and team to the next level - and there is no bigger step up than Google!,” a notice on the Instantiations website reads.
“We very much appreciate your patronage and interest through the years. As part of Google, we look forward to continuing to work with you. Please stay tuned for exciting new announcements coming soon on the Google Web Toolkit blog,” it adds.
Interestingly, Instantiations, the company, will live on. Google acquired the team that built AJAX and Java tools for Instantiations, but the company also had a team working with Smalltalk tools. That team and its products will live on as Instantiations, while the others will be joining Google.
The GWT Designer has become one of the most popular ways of using the GWT resources, certainly for those who prefer to work with an integrated development environment, particularly the open-source, Java-based Eclipse IDE.
Google hasn’t said anything so far, but it’s probably going to announce something on its GWT blog, once the product and the team have been fully integrated. Current customers of Instantiations’ Java and AJAX tools will continue to be catered with, though, for the moment, the company has halted all downloads. “For a short period of time, new downloads of our products will be unavailable while we make the transition, but our service continues uninterrupted for those who have support agreements in place,” Instantiations explained.