Slashdot Mirror
Could IM Be The Next Step For Google?
Rob_Warwick writes "Silicon.com has released an article theorizing that Google might be thinking about releasing an Instant Message client. Between a google_im:// protocol embedded in the Google Desktop Search, and their acquisition of Picasa and their IM client this summer, it almost sounds possible."
And if you are worried about security, Google claims that it's more secure than AOL Instant Messenger," said Nathan Weinberg, who runs the InsideGoogle blog.
You mean it's more secure than sending and receiving plaintext + HTML? Wow. I'm impressed. Personally I think everyone should be proxying their AIM sessions over encrypted tunnels (especially if you are on a college campus) but I'd be more worried about Google archiving and learning my chat preferences. Soon I'd be getting "spam" to my GMail account based on my most frequently used words.
Personally, I don't want to log and search my AIM conversations. Most of that is quick chat or non-sense. I see where in corporate environments it would be useful but for MY home use I just don't see the need. YMMV.
Right after they release their web browser.
if IM is next... then google bots are not far away....
Ambient [Servlet Based Webapp Engine]
wouldn't it be neat if it was a serverless udp kinda thing?
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
I would love to see a google solution. Google could take over the world for all I care right now. They keep kicking out quality products, and I keep on eating them up. kudos, GOOG.
Google has also recently added a gmail email notification client that sits in the tray and notifies you when new gmail messages are received. Quoting from their description of the program:
"The Gmail Notifier is a downloadable Windows application that alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser."
Sure sounds like a potential IM client.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
I haven't played around with Google Desktop yet, but does anyone know if google keeps the index of your desktop on "Your" machine or do they radio up some of that index to their main search engine for the world to see? I doubt they would do this but has anyone found any text proving (or disproving ) this?
I downloaded it, but I haven't tried it yet. Same with their computer searcher.
:), but in anycase it was nice of them to give it out.
It would be nice if these were open source, instead of freeware
What did you think of Picasa or the searcher?
If they come out with IM, it can't be as worse as windows messanger. Hopefully they support an open standard and encourage 3rd party applications also .
Like targetted ads towards your conversation? Woo!
:/ one look at the duct tape around my glasses and she ran out screaming.
<friend> hey, got rejected again last night, eh?
<you> yeah.
Google Ad: Russian Brides~
Okay, where do I sign up?
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
...so am i going to be able to search through my entire IM history through one easy interface? :)
groovy man
always mosh clockwise
Try using GAIM. It's a chat client that allows you to use a variety of protocols, including AIM. No ads, no bloat, and if you have multiple messenger services, it can cut the number of extraneous icons in your taskbar. Only drawback IMO is the lack of video and sound options and the occasional interruption of service when one of the messenger services decides to get clever with their protocol. However, Gaim tends to catch up within about 24 hours on the latter case.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
With Google branching into so many fields, one day you'll drive your Google to the Goggle to buy some Goggle to eat while you watch Google on your Google.
I'm serious. Please do not mod funny.
'The staff in the hand of a wizard may be more than a prop for age,' -Hamá, the doorward
Between a google_im:// protocol embedded in the Google Desktop Search, and their acquisition of Picasa and their IM client this summer, it almost sounds possible.
:-)
:-/
How about -- soon to be a reality?
Hmmm... I hope they'll go for Jabber. IMHO, the world doesn't need yet another IM protocol. Actually, I don't think we need yet another IM client either, but that's just me. Who knows what innovative features Google might come up with. I have a hard time imagining the next generation for IM clients myself. Any ideas?
Hmm, maybe a shared virtual storage among a group of invited IM buddies. Have no idea if someone already did this though. And I think they'd need to stay free even while coughing up with the hard drives to accomplish this if they'd want any kind of user base. Hmm...
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
So does that make the protocol it uses the GIMP?
I can't possibly imagie them trying to take over a large portion of the IM market. It's already quite crowded as it is (AIM, MSN, Y!, ICQ, Jabber, etc.)
What I can see them doing is making a universal IM client with the addition of a GIM protocol or maybe GIM-only features that might sit on top of other clients (who knows?).
Although it is also interesting that Google has implemented AIM log searching into thier desktop search, it doesn't mean they'll be extending this to a GIM service; that also is to say that just because the desktop search looks through IE history, doesn't neccessarily mean they'll be make a GBrowser.
Seems like Google are moving away from static browse-only-when-you-want-to information provision to dynamic, in-your-face services. Just some examples: email, alerts (like this third party) and SMS. In all cases, Google are getting a more dynamic relationship with their customers - giving more and (as they no doubt hope) advertising more in return.
Between software, browsers, and now IM clients, sometimes I wonder if the Slashdot editors actually believe that Google will make these peices of software, or if they're just trying to bait Google into registering a bunch of un-needed domains.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
IM, how original... but I guess they can add their own twist to it.
Google's reputation was built from their search engine. Not exactly an original idea, but they did it better than anybody else. Gmail, web-based mail... Not very original either, but they've done something with it that nobody else has. So isn't it feasible that they could revolutionize IM the same way?
With all of the great ideas that come out of Google, I believe they can do anything.
Of course, Jabber based. /. long ago and actually emailed google (do they read those?) about the advantages of them getting into IM. So of course, I'll take credit if they do :)
BTW, I posted about this on
So now my wife can search my IM records to find conversations with my girlfr...oh wait, this is slashdot. Yay google!
crazy google.
"What seems to be the problem, osciffer?" (pronounced aus-if-fer.. bah forget it)
From what google is today , I would like to throw your collective memories back into the early eighties.
... at least this time , make sure we don't end up with *another* monopoly on the internet.
..
I was a toddler with drool down my face... but I've done my homework . Remember when Microsoft was the underdog fighting the "Not Invented Here" IBM's stranglehold on the computer industry (I don't see any DEC clones here).
We're back to another underdog fighting a monopoly
For a company whose motto is "do no evil", this move doesn't fit into the picture. But for a potential juggernaut ready to steamroll the Redmond Giant, this looks like the IDEAL move. Makes perfect business sense too - but google was never about Money - or that's the submlinal message that makes the geek community google fans.
Be afraid, be very very afraid
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
first off, i'm a huge Google fan and user, and have been for years, before it was even popular...but...
just to play devil's advocate...at what point do you start making monopolistic comparisons between Google and Microsoft...they already have the largest market share in Web Searches...they've brnached out into e-mail and now desktop searches...they are probably gonna move in on instant messaging and likely the browser wars...and yet, absolutley no criticism what-so-ever about how they could possibly become some sort of internet monopoly...are they justing benefiting from the fact that (thus far) their products are free?...or is everyone just happy that the aren't microsoft...?
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125644&thre shold=1&commentsort=0&tid=217&mode=thread&cid=1052 4952
Does anyone else have this spooky feeling about all of this? I like Google, I like Gmail, but I'm beginning to become disturbed not by the downside of Google's products, but rather by their lack of a downside. The big G is well on its way to controlling a significant percentage of the internet. Economics might have predicted something like this, but it still strikes me as ominous.
Then again, it could be because I have the soundtrack to John Carpenter's The Thing playing in the background. Hmmm...
did we indeed create a monster? Look at the evelolution
/. is concerned) as microsoft? I mean, do you really welcome your new Goverlords?
-search engine
-search engine/mail service
-search engine/mail service/file searching system
-search engine/mail service/file searching system/possible OS/IM Client
Granted that yes this is the same route yahoo took (only yahoo doesn't have a file searching system and possible OS on it's development list), but google seems to be taking this to the next level. If google continues to grow and adds more Gfunctions to their already large collection, will it eventually become as large and distrusted (possibly even hated as far as
I could just be overreacting.
as long as they play nice and get past the legal hurdles; interoperability is key.
no, not like trillian.
--- widget evolution: enhanced, plus, super, ultra, extreme, exxxtreme, ultra-extreme,
In contrast to webmail providers, there are a lot of decent IM clients. So the answer is NO.
gim.com
gchat.com
gmessage.com
gtalk.com
All *not* registered by google (unless they're doing some sort of proxy registration to hide their name.) I'll be watching gbrowser.com anyway which *is* owned by them.
And I for one welcome our new information wielding overlords.
They know what we look for on the internet, where we are browsing (with their new browser), what's on our computers (with their new desktop search tool), whats in our inbox (gmail), and now what we talk about to our friends through IM. Perhaps we should outsource the Directory of Central Intelligence position to Google? All it would cost us is a few text-only adds on any reports it sends up to the White House.
IMO there are way too many IM clients already out there. If google were to release one it would just mean more clutter on my desktop and more work to try and get all my buddys to get the client and sign up for it too. This reminds me of what sony is doing now-trying to get a piece of the competition by releasing something good and theoretically better, but really, does anyone acually use sony's atrac?
yeah. :/ one look at the duct tape around my glasses and she ran out screaming.
s/around my glasses/and chloroform/g
that would fucking suck.
1. No feedback on message delivery.
2. Bandwidth overhead introduced by error correction/checking (UDP is the wrong protocol)
3. Central server still needed to record IP addresses to pass to clients.
4. Massive bandwidth outlay on connection. (Modem user has to send buddy image to all 100 buddies online).
5. It wouldnt work throught a NAT firewall.
6. You wouldnt know if you had become disconnected.
7. You couldnt log on from any machine (ala msn, icq), because no central server to give you your contacts list.
In short i think your idea sucks in SO many ways. It would be suck a step back. Serverless UDP is not a scaleable communications system. It sucks for P2P and would for IM too.
If you want to consider more intelligent message delivery system, consider networks like OpenFastTrack.
Dom.
use Blunt::Instrument;
Well, there may be hacks.. but for a TECH company with BILLIONS in the bank - why - oh why - is there no forward momentum, develop and thinking in regards to capitalizing on the linux market?
Sure the protocol will probable be hacked into gaim or kopete, but thats not enough.
The web is supposed to be platform independant - introduce cross platform tools google! Please!!!
google would create a file system and get into the operating system business?
I would be really happy if a big company as Google would establish a standardized IM. By "standardized" I mean that they should use an open and well documented protocol, such as XMPP (aka "Jabber", see RFC 3920-3923).
As long as I can search other people's conversations, I don't see the problem with Google IM. Should make for some entertaining reading. ;^)
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Everything Google has done so far has been things where the level of consumer lock-in has been relatively low. Search and news services, all that it takes to switch products is to go to a different URL. Email requires a bit more work to change but people do change their email address from time to time. Googlebar and the hard drive search, well, all that takes is installing a little program.
IM though is drastically different because you don't use IM to communicate, you use IM to communicate with people you already know. Does anyone really think AIM is the best IM client? I doubt it, but AIM is what is popular because AIM lets you talk to the people you already know. The degree of lock-in for IM is immense. So launching a new IM client wouldn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. People have been making IM clients for years and years now and "alternative" IM clients have never generally seemed to get anywhere unless, like, Trillian, they can support a lot of different IM networks in one app; doing this is a lot of thankless work for not much payback. Unless you're Microsoft and you have to own everything, exactly what does "wow, people are using an IM app with my logo on it instead of an IM app with those other people's logo on it" gain you?
Maybe it would make sense if gmail added some YG-like or IM-like (or both) features between people with gmail accounts. Maybe it would make sense if gmail added some kind of small proxy so that people logged in to gmail could send and receive messages from AIM. But I think some of these googlewatchers just periodically attribute every possible software product under the sun to being part of Google's plans. So far we've had Google planning to make an operating system, a browser, and I've even heard the IM client rumor before. So far Google's new products have consistently been a bit more subtle and surprising than that.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Therefore, in Google's low-profile (in terms of product launch) style, I suspect that Google has a wider vision and the IM is just a small part.
What that vision is, is anyone's guess. But it should become more apparent as Google releases more and more small components.
Google O/S is much touted. Perhaps, perhaps.
I discovered something interesting about Gmail.
I filled out a customer feedback form for a major car manufacturer, and gave my Gmail address as a reply destination.
While clicking the submit button, I noticed that I forgot to put the "." between my first and last name, my address being Firstname.Lastname@gmail.com.
I thought oh well, they're probably not going to reply to me anyway.
The next day I was surprised to see a reply by them in my Gmail inbox!
Makes me wonder how many typos Gmail can tolerate and still forward you the email...
And saw this part at the end:
A Google representative said the protocol flagged by Smith does not hint at a pending Google IM product; rather, it is merely a component used to capture IM data from AOL Instant Messenger and make it searchable on the desktop.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
On the one hand, it's fine to speculate about a young company that is branching out into other parts of the internet besides searching...
On the other hand, I don't need to read 100 stories that start "Could [Random Internet Technology] be the Next Step for Google"
First, it was the browser story. Google says no. Reason for the story? GBrowser is owned by google.
Now it's the IM client. Next the Internet Enabled Toaster because google owns Gtoaster.com. Nevermind the fact that just because Google is good at search engines, they'll be good at anything else.
For once can we get some kind of facts here before jumping on the google train?
Exactly, if they create their own protocol, that would be bad news for the IM community and Jabber, if they use Jabber, then Jabber will gain even more steam (more than it currently is now after having an RFC.
While it's true that Google has innovated the services they have created in the past, I have my doubts concerning what they could do with an IM client. The one factor that is different from their previous services is that this one would involve other people. You can use whatever search engine or webmail service you like; however, straying from the ordinary with your IM service could leave you quite lonely.
Because almost EVERY IM client out there is a total piece of trash and spyware. I am a huge fan of Trillian, and having a Google IM client that finally makes Jabber mainstream will be a great thing -- not to mention I should be able to use Trillian to connect and chat with contacts.
:)
Now if only Google would allow me to use Gmail in my Outlook... I could replace my ISP email entirely
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
There's a little-known chat client out there, called Miranda IM... An ultra-slim "Trillian" type application that supports all the popular protocols, has plug-in support, etc, etc... http://www.miranda-im.org/ It's free, of course. dep
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
You're right - Troll would have been the correct mod. Hopefully the mods will get it right now.
I think they could really pull it off. If they make their IM client as easy as user-friendly and reliable as their email client with some nifty new features it could draw a lot of people from AIM. I know I was drawn from hotmail along with my entire family and almost all of my friends. If they give enough reasons to switch, people won't complain about the hassle associated with it.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
Overrated? Some mod needs a clue. Offtopic, yes.
See, with gaim... I use Suse 9.1 and I've tried like 3 different ways to get the damn thing to install...I figure its just broken. The RPMs have dependencies you can't satisfy because they supposedly conflict with other RPMs and then you can't get all the RPMs you need, the versions don't match...so i was like fuck that! So i decide to compile it!....try to run ./configure and GLIB ISN"T THE RIGHT VERSION, JESUS CHRIST! so i run around looking for GLIB rpms or an update of some sort...only to find that i already have GLIB 2.0 but for some (unknown) reason, the ./configure thingy refuses to acknowledge its presence.
"Try using GAIM"...yes...i tried...i failed.
Honestly every week we hear another thing that Google is going to do.
Google may be on their way to ruling the universe, but the little backwater program gaim will forever rule IM.
"Monopoly" doesn't just mean a company is really big. It also, despite what Microsoft would like to convince you of, doesn't just mean the company has no competitors. It has to do with whether the company has the capacity to wield their market power as a weapon to quash or prevent competition, and the company's ability to retain customers against those customers' will and best interest. In short it isn't about the company's size in a market, it's about a company's level of control over a market.
Google is large and in search it does not have many or healthy competitors. But it would be a stretch to call it a monopoly at this point, and it is pretty clear that if Google possesses monopoly power of some sort they aren't attempting to utilize it at the moment.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Wouldn't it be much easier and more cost effective if they would just announce "hey gmail users, now your id & pwd work on our Jabber IM server!" It would instantly become the most popular Jabber server on the net, and the only effort would be in creating a cluster resilient enough to handle the onslaught, something they seem to be "pretty good" at. Wasn't that one of the original design goals of Jabber? So people could reuse their email addresses as IM uids, and service providers can host their own IM servers?
Finally, for everyone pushing Gaim, don't forget to mention Gaim-encryption to go along with it. It staples SSL and its own key management over top of any protocol Gaim supports. No SSL proxies or shyte like that. The chats are encrypted the entire path, client-to-client.
Intelligent Life on Earth
This could have some real potential. They could introduce XMPP server-side history (searchable through GMail and Google Desktop), and server-to-server SSL, and avatars, and Ogg Speex voice chat... *drool*
There is a lot of cool stuff in Jabber that most client authors aren't bothering with, usually because the really interesting stuff is a moving target. Maybe if Google came in and threw its weight around we can make some real progress and catch up to AIM, MSN, Y!, etc.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
you want gPopper
"gPopper is a FREE Gmail utility which acts as POP3/SMTP Gmail server allowing you to use programs such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Thunderbird to send and receive Gmail."
I use it and it works super duper.
What if Google started charging $0.001 per search? I'd probably pay it, but grumble anyway.
People like Google because:
* Free [everyone]
* Well-designed GUI (especially for gmail) [normal people]
* Isn't Evil [mostly geeks]
I'd be very interesting to see how google evolves over the next 5-10 years...
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answ er=10313&query=dot&topic=&type=f
:)
:)
Think about how many different gmail addresses you have just adding dots
You're welcome
Did any of you people actually take a look at Hello? (the IM they acquired)
... unflexible? there are probably better IM solutions, with more possibilities and a wider range of features (no, i won't say Jabber .. don't make me ... NO i said!!!)
...
the main focus of this thing is photo sharing. Granted, it does so encrypted, which is a Good Thing, but doesn't that seem a bit
And where is the 'Search' focus of Google?
we've had searchable mail, Searchable desktop,
I'd hate it if people contacted me based on what they found in archived chatlogs of me.
Google's inching closer to a real Privacy-Soul-Sucking-Search!
remember 'the ads are generated by software?'
Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
http://www.googlehello.com/
Of Code And Men
Google already has a social network of sorts mapped out among gmail users. Through their "beta" system of invites, they can monitor who asked whom to join gmail. With an IM client, they could learn even more about who knows whom: who chats with whom, how frequently they chat, content of discussions, etc. I'm not sure that they're going to be evil, but keep in mind that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Come on, more competition is a good thing. More players yields more choice, lower price, etc. etc. If google wants to go into the IM business to compete with MS, more power to them! Everyone wins in the end with better products.
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
I mean where is 1GB email for everybody? There was so much talk, but nothing is delivered (I mean *for everyone*. Its no problem for me to setup 1GB mail account for me and limited count of my friends/relatives). Browser? None. Desktop indexing? None (outside Windows). So, all we have is web search engine coupled with mostly useless add-ons (froogle, sms, ...). Moreover, in many countries (like here in Czech) this engine is useless, becouse it doesn't handle language well (example: serch for "kolo" should also find "kola" in Czech, which is too much for google to understand), so almost all peaople use jyxo.cz wich is *much* better then google. I guess that this apply for many other countries.
839*929
Instead of creating yet another protocol, why not just use something like jabber.. Or joining forces with AOL, or Yahoo or even Microsoft..
We have enough protocols in use now, we really dont need another to muddy up the waters even more.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I got my GMail account a bit ago, and maybe I just don't get enough mail, but I have not used it in a way I could not have used a bigger mailbox on yahoo.com. Maybe it would be useful if I was on more mailing lists? What sort of mail do you get that makes GMails "search" so awesome?
The search is good, still some problems. Its better for finding text inside of files or email. If your searching for a file with a certain name it is a pain in the ass.
It seems pretty likely to me that they will go with Jabber. We have basically been waiting for a big company to come in and make money off of this protocol anyway.
I wonder what their business model will be though. I can just imagine typing some message to a friend and suddenly getting an ad or something related to our conversation...
You are over-reacting.
Where on earth did you get the notion that google are developing their own freaking operating system??
If that is the case then i'll be watching googleporn.com
Can we ad the borg implants to the Google logo yet?
You arent stuck with using AOL's client.. you have many alternatives..
Trillian, Gaim, MirandaIM, Kopete.. just to name 4.. there are many more..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
At the point where they attempt to 'cut off the oxygen supply' of competitors, using any means necessary.
At the point where they take over and then strangle whole markets, just to maintain their dominance in others. (Internet explorer versus Mozilla being the perfect example, promoted heavily for free, then dropped when dominance was established). Watch out for an attempt at more of the same with XAML.
At the point where they attempt to force partners to sign exclusive and secret contracts locking out competition (BeOS).
At the point where they deliberately keep their protocols and formats closed to keep customers locked in. (Word and office suite).
Market share does not make a monopolist, abuse of market share does.
Yes people shouldn't blindly accept everything google does, or allow themselves to be locked into services with them, but that shows no sign of happening as yet.
Just because google releases NewProductFoo, you don't have to use it.
Honestly, amount of screaming and flapping that goes on around here whenever someone mentions google is starting to resemble the same amounts of over-googling (ha) in order to try to find the latest rumour about the 3TB Darwin-based iPod with the neural interface.
It's a freaking search engine.
There seems to be alot of moderators hellbent on modding down anyone criticizing Google as overrated so their comments do not go through metemoderation.
This is a perfectly reasonable post simply expressing an opinion, yet because it criticized Google, it was modded down as punishment. This type of modding needs to stop!
When it comes down to it, the only reason Google would roll this out, is if they could search it, and provide contextual advertisements in a sidebar.
To that end, I've seen a demonstration of a data mining tool, that can distinguish on an IRC channel, who is talking to whom, and about what (keywords).
As well as advertisements this sort of technology has online privacy ramifications. The suite of software is shaping up to be quite a piece of spyware: if you chat about something controversial, you, and your friends, could have the contents of your inboxes and desktops examined.
...offering "free" google stuff, then a paid for "pro" version with lots more features. I don't know what a good price break range would be, but around 20$/year might work.
Eventually I bet we see a google OS that any joe windows user might be able to autoinstall over the net painlessly (taking peoples connections and bandwith into account of course). I would also wager they have beta versions of something like that kicking around goog intergalactic right now. If you take all the different pieces of google, both available now and rumored, it is inching pretty close to being a full OS right now.
Is it more likley that Google and Microsoft will merge together or not?
Anyway, before getting an Instant Message...thingy, google will have to sort Gmail out first, unless they will let any kind of e-mail address use it.
The advertisements will probably be similar to the ones at the side and bottom of MSN, on the main whatsit, not the windows.
Who thinks there will be a 'search the web' input box somewhere within a google IM interface?
An article submitter reading an article? Blasphemy!
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
Maybe is just that what is needed...
Can't anybody else see that Google is exploiting it's monopoly in Trust to enter into new markets?
Won't somebody think of [AOL|Microsoft|...]!?
your systems's broken
Heh -- the coverage on Google starting a brower here, developing an IM client there, evaluating the Internet 3 here (gotchya!), etc. is getting a little nuts. I'm starting to see Google-this and Google-that everywhere. Kind of like Starbucks.
Google AdSense ads on every website I visit now. Google in my browser toolbar (my fault). Google gmail account suffixes in my e-mail client. Google showing up every 3rd or 4th story on Slashdot. My boss asking ME about researching Google paid advertising for our web clients.
Honestly, though -- it's neat to have a company with this sort of mystique around again. Those Segway people ruined their suspense when Joan Lunden nearly broke her neck during the TV morning show demonstration of the product. The lovely folks manufacturing those Crusoe processors have done delightlfully boring stuff with their systems (how come I ain't seeing non-obscure Japanese variants of laptops NOT running Intel processors at Best Buy?). And now that Carmack has released Doom3...it's on to another game.
Way to go Google -- just give us a heads up when you start opening a retail Google Country search engine store next to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in my NC hometown. The Starbucks there sort of spooked the natives. But they like it now -- they've assimilated nicely the frappacinos and espressos into their routine. Plus, the Starbucks cups hold more tobacco spit than the ones from McDonald's.
IronChefMorimoto
[ I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance ] -- Isaac Asimov
http://www.ugfc.org/2004/07/google_instant_.html
After GMail, it only seems logical they would try to work in keyword-based/contextual text ads into an IM client. IM features seem to have stagnated, maybe Google will add something cool into the mix.
If Google is ever thinking of releasing Gmail to the general public, they would be stupid not to include instant messaging. Think about it. Gmail competes with Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail. Both are coupled with IM clients. People are increasingly moving toward email accounts that are connected with IM. I am also sure most people would like to have a single address they could give other people.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
I've been using Picasa for a few months - downloaded it as part of the "Hello" service to post pictures to my Blogger account.
It's a little picture editor, but it also has some of the picture indexing functions of a product like Adobe Photoshop Album. It's a nice program, particularly for someone that is not really a graphics editor but just wants to clean up some snapshots. The Hello services works well too. They position it as a way to share pictures in an IM kind of way, and the post to Blogger happens by Blogger pretending to be one of your IM friends. Posts a reduced size picture to your blog article and an archive blog entry with the full size picture (you control sizes).
The pictures only serve to a blogspot domain site, I believe, so you can't use it to post pictures and then access them from another site.
Some limits, but it works well and is a nice quick solution for some needs.
Sleep is for the Weak
Google life search just announced Here
a rch.html
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/10/google_life_se
(A protocol allows desktop software to interact with the web browser.)
You learn something new every day...
A proprietary protocol has profit advantages over shared ones, in the short term. However, a large company putting their weight behind such a protocol isn't a guarantee of success, given MSN and AOL and Yahoo and other well-established chat providers. Taken another way, publishing the protocol and finding some other way to profit (relevant ads, increased market share for other profitable products, etc) would be a way to gain share rapidly. So, there could be other reasons than 'don't be evil' in favor of choice #1 above. But the only motive for guarding a protocol (choice #2) would be putting profit ahead of the customer's interests.
Incidentally, I still think google pretty much is breaking down. One out of ten searches I do gets dominated by astroturfed commercial sites with nothing relevant. Try finding an impartial web-hosting review site, for example. A competitor could eat google's lunch simply by allowing trusted reviewers to flag any site that seems too high on the list. If it is there improperly (by creating whole hierarchies of interlinked websites), prune it and any egregious peers. Get us back to where the top link is nearly always useful.
Well google indexed Boeing's website. Maybe they're gonna start an airliner business too?
I heard that Google's new CEO is a seven level dojo master. Maybe they're starting an action film studio!
meh meh meh
Why not wait till say Google *themselves* announce their next hack?
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
This is what we ALL need. Yet another IM network.
If they do this I atleast hope they're smart enough to follow a standard.
Javver/XMPP would be great, SIP+extenstions would be ok as well though.
But PLEASE, no more closed networks/properitary protocols.
I tried using Gaim for a while, but it keeps dropping connections, and seems unable to remember my password and log in again.
So I tried Kopete, and suddenly no more connection drops.
I prefer Gaim's UI and functionality, but that's no good if it can't keep a reliable connection.
(Debian unstable.)
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Also useful from a legal viewpoint is that Gaim by default logs all conversations. There was some ruling several months ago that IM chat logging could be considered as analagous to recording phone calls and therefore may not be legal without both parties being aware of said recording. However, they also said that any service which logged conversations by default was exempt as there was a reasonable doubt that the user intentionally logged said conversations. As a result, you can log legally with Gaim, but turning on chat logging for any of the services which don't come with it on by default could potentially put you into sticky political waters. (And no, I have no desire to know what's in politcal waters that always makes them so sticky...)
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
I did not Get It. What Kopete has to do with AIM? Can you elaborate, please?
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
GAIM works better for linux based O/Ss. I like the Trillian interface better myself for my Windows boxes. Make sure you download the Tiny skin though, the default is huge.
While I don't use it any more, I used to run GAIM on a 200 MHz Pentium-MMX, and even before that on a non-MMX 166 MHz Pentium. Ran fine.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I meant I don't use the machine in question any more. I still use GAIM. :)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
At least with GAIM, new tabs are opened in the same window as existing tabs.
That means that all my IMs go to the virtual desktop that my main AIM window is on, as opposed to interrupting me when I'm typing an email by popping up a new window and grabbing focus.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Bleh, IMAP would be much more appropriate to the typical use of accessing a gmail account from another client...
POP3 performs horribly in "persistent storage" situations. (i.e. email remains on the server.)
That reminds me, I should see if Thunderbird's IMAP support is decent, or if it's like all of its Mozilla/Netscape predecessors and insists on keeping a local copy of all IMAP mail (which defeats the purpose of IMAP.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Whatever Google does; be it a browser, IM or toaster ovens, it will succeed and help their bottom line.
Is it just me, or is every week there an article linked to somebody 'theorizing' what google will do next.
/. post. But in the comments there are still dozens of people saying: The evidence is clear, google will do this! They just don't want the magic widget industry to know about it until they are ready to release it in 5-7 decades.
/. his personal blog!
Look, some guy who use to play D&D with a guy who works as a mail clerk at Google thinks that Google plans on releasing a magic widget.
Then, because it's posted on slashdot, Google has to release a press release or official statement saying: No, google has no current plans to enter the magic widget business.
Which leads to a follow up
Look, some guy at google sneezed!
Got Apathy?
I for one welcome our new Governoogle Lords.
if you are batman then:1 11010101110000011001010111001001101101011000010110 1110
0100100100100000011000010110110100100000011100110
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
I'll save them some time: My innermost desire is a fat-free pudding that doesn't let you down in the flavor department like so many others.
Oh. That's just like my innermost desire... except I'd prefer that my fat-free flavorful pudding also be redheaded and named "Aurora".
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Finally, for everyone pushing Gaim, don't forget to mention Gaim-encryption to go along with it.
This is what puts me off trying Miranda. After exhorting my friends to install GAIM so we can all chat securely, I can hardly install another IM client and go all the way back to square one. Can we have a standard method of encryption that will work in all IM clients please? At least get the most popular OS clients working with compatible plug-ins.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
It could be like the planet Marklar from South Park. Welcome to planet Google!
They seem to enjoy springing stuff on people from nowhere.
free speach
Did you mean: free speech
So just be careful about characterizing the saving of your conversations as unworthily endeavor. Once these real time conversations are linked up with some deep web analysis tool such as googles search engine it could prove to be very problematic for individuals and advantages for systems of control and coercion.
Corporations could use this information to further intoxicate the mental environment. "personal advertising" is not a good thing. James I heard your having trouble with relationships its not you its your chemical imbalance you need our drug.
Governments could continue and escalate all the things they like to do to marginal sectors of the population. Ie: drug war, intellectual property war, and if the present administration keeps course the "government" could be using tools like these on text messages in protest to more efferently put people' in prison for a few days.
Sure I can see it now. Search all of your IM's and everybody elses im's. You get 1 gb of space on google's servers that store your IM's. Seriously what can google make money off of? Targeted advertising in the client? Or im's from advertisers?
My UID is prime is yours?
Just dump text files to freenet with your message, and mail the links to them via postal mail.
It's *SO* much more secure than plain old IM!
Instead of waiting for GoogleIM to come out (if ever)... try ubergroups.com. We've been building this service for nearly a year now, and we're not launching until next month but in the mean time you can sign up and check out the technology preview of our service.
Instead of person-to-person messaging, we have built this service around the concept of private IM groups (hence the name) that people can join or be invited to. Once you're in a group you can see everyone who's in that group - no screen name swapping or awkwardness. Everything's secure and logged, and you can go back and search through your old conversations or file transfers. You can also share files and thoughts with other group members through private blogs.
Already it's become a core way of operating for us internally. It's very useful for any type of project team or development group.
On the tech side, we've built this IM service on top of XMPP/Jabber so you can use any client you want (iChat coming soon), or you can use our Java client, which is pretty nice and loads through Web Start.
The basic service is free and we'll be rolling out some cool for-pay options down the road as well.
Bottom line: no need to wait for Google to do this. Try ubergroups.com for yourself and see why.
Contestant: You would be saying what your happiness this if you had taken all everything.
Papa Google: Things a googly google would google!
Contestant: What you say?
Papa Google: Things a googly google would google!
Contestant: No. All right, if you taking all my ship, and all are having for you, you saying then this.
Papa Google: Things a google would google to another google?
Contestant: No. Not even close. Cats saying this if he is being master of all world.
Papa Google: How a google makes little googles?
Contestant: NO!!!
(with apologies to the $20,000 zig)
Hello
but for a TECH company with BILLIONS in the bank - why - oh why - is there no forward momentum
It seems to be an iron law that a tech company with billions in the bank will lack forward momentum.
Some examples:
IBM
AT&T
Apple
HP
All companies that were once innovative and that have fallen prey to the dreaded curse of the maximized shareholder value(in terrorvision).
IBM and Apple have had their curse lifted by falling on hard times. Google's nightmare has just begun.
Billions of dollars in market capitalization. Lot of PHDs. Lot of talk. Lot of betas. Lot of rumours. 1999-present, Just one real product/service, called Google search. Google is coming up with email, browser, IM...sorry Google...but these have already been invented...how about something NEW ? Is Google simply not focussed on getting real products to market ? or will it and it's PHDs stay involved in altruistic computer science research.
It was the way you phrased it before that threw me in confusion... But... You can run Kopete under Cygwin/X.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/18/1 142247
Don't get me wrong, I wish there was a Linux market. But it makes absolutely no sense today for a company to target the Linux desktop... because it simply is not there.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Posting anonymously to avoid looking like a karma whore or somesuch, but there's an article at The Register about the case I was remembering. However, re-reading the exact ruling, I'm not sure if this applies afterwards... they cited two different cases, one involving AIM and one involving ICQ. It was not so much a matter of whether the software by default logged conversations as that both sides should have been aware that the default setting is to log chats for that client. With Gaim and such programs emulating the basic client, is there still a reasonable expectation that chats are being logged? After all, there's nothing really telling you that they're using Gaim, not AIM, so there's no real indication as to whether your messages are being recorded. Anyone know of any other legal examples?
For Google, there is no Linux market. They are a consumer of Linux. They use it in all those massive clusters. As for their desktop apps, there is not enough of a desktop Linux market on which to capitalize. Sad, but true. There not making anything for the Mac either but, personally, I don't see anything all that compelliing about their apps (and Tiger will have some of that funtionality, I think).
This is precisely why I stick with the older versions of AIM. No bloat. No spyware. No hassles. Quite frankly I have no need to "upgrade" beyond version 4.3, since it has all the features I could possibly want: IM, Chat, File transfer, Direct connect, Buddy Icons. Who needs more than that anyway? Just download any version of Netscape Communicator from 4.04 through 4.8, and you'll get a version of AIM ranging from 1.5 through 4.3.
Dang, I wanted to register that one so badly.
Google, G-mail, G-browser, G-news, G-groups; G-one, G-other; G-this, G-that; G-basically-anything. One really has to wonder how long before Google gets sued by Ernst Gräfenberg for trademark infringement.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
"Come on! They have one female servicing a large group of males! That implies a species that lays eggs!"
"Oh my god! You're crazy! They are so obviously mammals!"
"Please! She'd be in estrus 24/7 if she didn't lay eggs!"
"SMURFS DON'T LAY EGGS! I won't tell you this again! Papa Smurf has a fuckin' beard! They're mammals!"
or it loads anyway. I'm not a fan of IM, so I don't have any correspondents to check with. You can simply install it from the DVD.
------ The only greater hazard to your liberty than n politicians is n+1 politicians.
Give it a shot.
It's a pretty neat app - not a general-purpose client per se. (not that that couldn't easily be fixed with a "compact mode".)
Considering that not long ago someone stumbled across a domain name that suggested Google might be getting into browsers, I don't give this theory much credibility.
Actually, I'm starting to suspect that Google plants clues about products that'll never be written just to keep its competitors off balance. If Microsoft is worried about Gbrowser, it won't see Google Desktop coming. So the right question might be, what's Google really got up its sleeve that GIM is distracting us from?
Hey, you try to find an open nick these days!
For being considered one of the most innovative companies on the net, they have a pretty poor record of really innovative things, so I hope they get to the thinking chair and amuses us all, rather than jumping on things we already have, thank you.