"we're flattered Google thinks Campfire is a great product, we're just disappointed that they stooped so low to basically copy it feature for feature, layout for layout". He went on to say that "we thought that would be beneath Google, but maybe its time to reevaluate what they stand for."

We've established that they were willing to be snide about it, but not that it was in any way threatening to them. Campfire is, by far, their simplest application.

jasonfried would be welcome to respond here. while they're busy writing marketing blogs, because of the simplicity, 37signals' software is defensible from a startup's point of view, but doesn't hold a candle to Google if they launched something, a la HuddleChat.