Google Just Hired The Whole Team From Cool SXSW Startup, Behavio

In what looks like an acqui-hire, Google has bought tiny startup Behavio for an undisclosed sum.

Behavio was a sensation at last year's SXSW show. It won a $355,000 grant from the Knight Foundation at the show for its tech that turns Android phones into data collection "sensors."

Behavio's tech is an open source project called "FunF."

Now that Behavio works for Google, the alpha test on FunF that Behavio was working on will be shut down, according to the Behavio website. UPDATED: The FunF project will live on as part of Google.

We heard from a Google spokesperson who says that the company is not taking on FunF as part of this acquisition. The Behavio team promised to keep working on FunF, but they will do so outside of their work at Google. In a separate email, Google told us that it didn't actually buy the company, either, it hired the whole team.

It's not a total surprise that Google bought Behavio. It was lead by Nadav Aharony who worked at Google as a product manager in the Android team before getting a PhD at MIT Media Labs. Behavio's cofounders, Alan Gardner and Cody Sumter, are also heading to Google where they'll keep working on FunF, the Behavio website said.

We've written before how smartphones are becoming more human, with the ability to see (camera), hear (mic), feel (touch/accelerometer), even smell and taste, thanks to sensors.

FunF is going to let Android app developers tap into this almost-human population of phones to track trends in realtime.

Amazing stuff.