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Google Instant Messenger all Rumor
Jbravo writes "Search, blogging, maps, photos, email, and now a portal, Google has kept adding to their array of services. Is an instant messenger next for Google? Most recently Google has been said to be buying out a company called Meetroduction, LLC for their instant messenger Meetro. So, is it true? Is Google writing the check now? Well, after a chat with Paul Bragiel, CEO of Meetroduction, the word is not right now. He called the whole story 'rumors.'"
A lot of people already have IM networks that they're locked into because their friends/contacts are happy with that network and use it. In europe, its extremely common for people to have MSN, whilst the trend stateside seems to be more toward AIM (with MSN still significant there too). Google could do better by adopting something like XMPP/Jabber and either using a client that supports MSN/AIM/ICQ protocols or the server-side protocol translation that Jabber supports. A solid Google IM client based on XMPP might be just what the standard needs to build profile (whilst still allowing easy adoption through MSN/AIM compatibility)
Business Voyeur
Because people search google, an IM would be genius. People who search for the same thing could meet each other through google IM. Almost like how technorati and other sites do it, google could take it one step further. Imagine the waste IM client combined with the google search engine.
- Connectivity with other nets (MSN/AIM/Yahoo!)
- Connectivity with other jabber users
- Allows a p2p structure, which is cheap for google
The fact that the technology is there, might be impotrant for google, since it is a solution that just has to be deployed. Only problem might be how servers cope when they get 100K users, and how google will ensure connectivity with MSN et al without being sued for something...Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
Indeed, with Yahoo, MSN and AIM the whole IM market is already oversaturated, Google would need at least 2-3 years to build a decent sized following. The idea does however fit in the whole "collecting all the information in the world" motto they have. Maybe they'll make it a beta like all the majority of their projects, and asses futer development based on beta's success.
It doesn't have to be their own IM network. I could see Google coming out with a web-based IM client for an existing protocol, in line with their web-based desktop philosophy. I, for one, wouldn't mind seeing a nice lightweight AJAX-stylee IM client built into my google account for when im not at home.
Where is the story about rumours that Google would buy Meetro... This looks like a way to get people to visit the meetro website.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
I don't see how facilitating instant internet communication fits into their "collecting all the information in the world" motto at all. It would take a REALLY anally-retentive person to want a searchable log of ALL their conversations with their friends, if that's what you're implying here.
UNIX: A computer user is defined as a programmer. WINDOWS: A computer user is defined as a consumer.
Ok, let's skip your attitude.
How does it have more functionality than irc? It has _different_ functionality.
Being a bitlbee user, i'm redirecting all of my IM traffic to IRC anyway, for convenience reasons, so i really don't get what's your point. I was just trying to highlight the fact that for a lot of people a protocol created 17 years ago perfectly does the job, or does the job better.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
I don't know if they'll dominate desktop, but they're dominating the internet... Orkut, Gmail and Search. Do you need more?
GMail users are experiencing problems since friday if their adress consists of non-alphanumerical characters. While emails arrive at joesixpack@gmail.com, they do not arrive at joe.sixpack@gmail.com. Google claims to ignore these characters, and many people have choosen to give their adress to their contacts with points.
Google has not yet responded to bug reports.
I certainly hope this is a temporal problem and emails are not lost.
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
Yes.
Gmail has context sensative ads. Most messages have advertisements for related topics. For example, I became aware of dice.com through a gmail ad. They made a dime on that one, I'm sure.
Google News is a repository of information. Of course they make money on it. If nothing else, they learn their user's habits.
Picasa, in case you didn't know, has several venues for Google to make a profit. First, google gets a better understanding of how images are cataloged by their users. This makes services like images.google.com more efficient, and possibly even "smart". Second, Picasa is paired with a "Order Prints" function which shells out to several different photo printing services including Wal-Mart, Shutterfly, and Life Pics. This, I'm sure makes a small profit. Third, it integrates with Blogger and Tivo, which I'm sure there is an indirect revenue stream from these services as well.
An IM client could be huge for Google; I'm sure they could find ways to make a profit. Context sensative ads (similar to Trillian's Wikipedia lookup feature), regular advertisements (like AIM and MSN's advertising), and the ability to shell right out to their other revenue sources like google.com, gmail, and picasa.
Information is valuable these days...
Deja Vu
n. 1. The sensation that you've read this very article before.
um... i do that already with gaim. I have logs of all conversations... currently over 10 megs of logs going back a few years. It is unbelievably useful. addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, all sorts of information ready to be mined with grep. Of course I have only needed to do that a few times, but nonetheless one must maintain the logs to be able to ever do it.
also, you don't have to be anally retentive to do that. Its the same reason I keep all emails and documents written and have downloaded the human genome project. You just never know when you may need it.
When all else fails, try.
Absolutely right. If nothing were up, it would be in his interest to simply not comment, since it would feed interest in his company.
He called the whole story 'rumors'.Read this as "He's doing the best he can to hold down his stock price so he can buy back as much of it as possible before the deal's announced."
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Well, there are some key differences in what Meetro is doing. First and foremost: it's a radius-based software which finds people in the vicinity of your current location. So imagine a scenario in which you pop open your laptop in a coffee shop and immediately see 20-30 people within a mile. You can talk to any one of them immediately, look at their profiles, etc. That's the PRIMARY gist of what we're doing here. On top of such functionality, however, is a multi-IM client with AIM, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ compatibility. So in that sense we see Meetro as a bridge product to a new type of realtime, location-based social net. Something in between IM and the phone-based buddy finders? It's an experiment, but one whose validity we are firmly confident in. We'll see where it goes!
--- Meetro: Location-Based Chat www.meetro.com
Meetro's key innovations. Their elevator statement is. Let's go into desperate internet cafes and ask them to setup 802.11b (hah 1!) and install Meetro clients (hah 2!) and get these internet cafes to register with Meetro their Geo-coded locations (hah 3!). The idea is if all three stages are done, the 30 people on Meetro can login at anytime and Meetro will automatically announce where you are to your friends. hah 1: Internet cafes aren't cool places where you bring your laptop and surf a little on 802.11b. It's a cigarette-smoking place full of loud noisy teenagers dying to pwn you on the internet. hah 2: The typical internet cafe already has at least 5 instant messengers, and all of them have 500,000,000 more users than Meetro. hah 3: Internet Cafes don't want to be found. They pirate software--a lot of it. They don't want walk in traffic of socialites wanting to meet each others (come in, spend 5 minutes, and then leave). They want internet addicts who stay for hours. Look, Meetro WILL generate a temporary buzz. Oh geo-coding!! HOW COOL!! Oh little brother snooping!! How CONTROVERSIAL!! Meetro is in beta and they are lost. Many instant messenger out there has been so-so followers with no clear innovations. Perhaps I am being too harsh, but Meetro does not have a gripe on what people really want. If people want to fuck. They will use a sex dating site. If people want to meet up, what's really at stake is a good calendar or events planner. Franklin and the 5,000,000 workgroup email solutions are already fighting in this space (admittedly to no-one's satisfaction). There's like 30 members on it now--why would Google buy this? Who ever submitted this story is just getting Meetro on the map, getting it on Slashdot to make it legit. You have to do what you can to promote your business, but this is clearly astroturfing.
I went on the site of the mentionned company and it features a flash movie stating it's an IM that connects you with other buddies geographically near you (like 0.25 mile) and with the same interests...
If this was true, I think it could be very interesting: sometimes nice events happen in my neighborhood and I just miss them because I didn't know there was something happening... or those who don't know their neighbors? (disclosure: I know my neighbors!)
An app allowing you to discover the life in your community (neighbohood) while letting you to remain anonymous (if wanted) would be a hit. You could subscribe to local RSS feeds about social/cultural events, for example or find the association you were looking for.
To be used, such IM app would need to function with minimal self-disclosure... with IPs? I know there are free databases to segment IP per countries but, what about IP per cities/neighborhoods? Does anyone know something about that?
The net performs great to access stuff by subject but performs poorly to find things near me.
Integrating a chat mode to gmail would be a nice way to go. I think people would love to just use their email account for messaging. and then have the conversations show up in gmail along with the rest of their emails. It solves the messaging problem and allows them to get a email client onto peoples computers. If they could do it through a web interface (not sure how that would work as far as socket connections) even better. no new client to install. just go to their website, log in and chat/email. not sure how a gateway to other services would fit into this, but that would be another plus.
When all else fails, try.
Though I agree that the IM client market is over-saturated I also feel that if Google were to take on a client for itself there would be something unique about it.
This Meetro IM client (http://www.meetro.com/ does posess something that sets it apart from all of the other clients/metaclients: Location based contacts. If you are in Sandusky OH and want to meet up with other people who share the same interests as you do for a day at Cedar Point, go to a wi-fi connected spot in town and find someone local or visiting who wants to go.
Give it a peek.
- skinnytie -