Remember The Milk in Gmail, or: how to get acquired by Google

I like Gmail. I like Remember The Milk. Wouldn’t it be cool if these two played together? The guys at Remember The Milk certainly thought so, so they hacked together some integration using Firefox plugin Greasemonkey. This basically means Gmail now has an awesome todo-list functionality. Not only does it let you add and manage tasks, it integrates with e-mail very easily (star a message and it pops up as a todo-item automatically). Watch the demo video and be amazed.

Now I can go on and on about the coolness-factor of this new app, but I think one thing is very interesting. The way they force Google to notice them. Remember The Milk is one of the best todo-list-startups out there, and has been online for over a year or so. They continue to innovate on many levels, but the main area of feature growth is within Google products. The have integration with Google Calendar, iGoogle, Google Maps, Google Gears, etc. Great for their users of course, but also great to get on Google’s acquisition-radar. Not to mention the easy integration process when they actually get acquired. And really, wouldn’t a todo list be a perfect fit for the Google Apps suite?

Somebody once told me about a startup that moved offices next to eBay so they would notice them, maybe even enough to be acquired. But integrating your product in some companies technology before they acquire you? That’s just great strategy. Or at least a happy accident.