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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.'"
Wasn't this called "Hello"? See here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
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
Denials are almost a sure sign that something is up. Rumors, I don't know. But every time a company denies something, it seems it's actually confirmed shortly thereafter.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Any company trying to roll out yet another instant messenger would be making a mistake. There are already three uber-popular, incompatible networks, not to mention the handful of smaller protocols. None of them really offer anything that the others don't have. Enough is enough.
UNIX: A computer user is defined as a programmer. WINDOWS: A computer user is defined as a consumer.
we really don't need another IM program. I'll consider trying it, but I think the general IM'ing population won't want to change.
I'll change in a second -- and tell all of my friends to change -- if, somehow, it just blows everything else out of the water. This, however, seems unlikely.
The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river.
Sure they don't advertise it, but Hello is a Google product...
...sooner or later, Googlezon is coming.
considered rumor only from now until it actually gets announced....
.. It is, to use the old phrase "a non-denial denial".
If the guy had said "It's just rumours and there is absolutely no truth in it" that would be one thing. Just saying "it's a rumour" is the polite equivalent of "no comment".
I would imagine that Paul Bragiel and his company is quite enjoying the attention, so it's not in his interests to decisively quash these rumours, so he's left things a little ambiguous.
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.
Interesting that MS has to take a lot of flack here for using its "unfair" financial advantage to buy out companies for their tech (drawing comparisons to a vampire) whereas it has been perfectly okay for Google to do the same.
- 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
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 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
people are saying: "next IM? -no space on the net", but the same was with email - there were also thousends of mail providers before google and anyway google succeded!
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.
Google could take IM any day, if they bought skype they wouldnt even need to do much re-branding!
Im still waiting for google calendar, theres just no good calander/task program thats remote, syncable, and cross-platform, unless im missing something..
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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.
Actually, many people are slowly finding they need 10 times the functionality that the Windows variants provide. That's why other OS's exist and will continue to exist. Realize that functionality can be measured in many ways - freedom isn't free, for one thing - it requires work, whether in a democracy or an effort to have free (from control by others) software.
Google is lead by people smart enough to recognize that Microsoft views them as a threat, and so, by fiat, Microsoft is a threat to Google. A world in which Google did not have to worry about loss of search effort (and hence loss of eyeballs to the advertising revenue they capture) to Microsoft or to others is a world in which Google makes more money. A weaker Microsoft that would have to make decisions on concentrating its resources on its bread-and-butter Office (threatened by OpenOffice, for one), and on its OS, which is its starting point for its huge market capitalization, is a world in which Microsoft is not gaining revenue from search, or from IM, etc.
IMO, Google could do far worse than to figure out how to make Firefox even more useful and how to make Gaim even more useful, and how to make Sunbird a useful product, and how to make a free Exchange-like product that tied 'em all together, and acted as a chat server, and so on, and to give those things away, and encourage their use. Less Microsoft presence in those areas means a retrenched Microsoft not dipping into the search engine advertising revenue stream.
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.
Most important for any service that Google provides that makes it out of beta is revenue generation. If it doesn't make money, there is no need to pour cash and brainpower in to develop it. So, how would Google make money? I see three posibilities. First would be to use the standard model of banner ads that infest the tops of AIM. Second would be to sell the product, like DeadAim http://www.jdennis.net/ or Trillian Pro http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/. Both of these solutions are not typical of Google products. The last option would be for contextual ads, like in GMail. This is an option that would be very server intensive (real time ad generation) and creepy, as Google would be reading all the messages that go in and out. So, in summation, instant messaging does not seem to be a market that appeals to the core of Google's buisness plan. Changes may arise, but all in all, this seems like a venture that Google would stay out of.
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.
No. geeks may be "slowly finding" this, but the "average user" is not. The "average user" has and continues to have a very well defined profile of things that they do. Games, image management, email, IM. The "average user" has no clue about much of what is discussed at Slashdot, and even less interest.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
My Moustache is claiming to have found a screenshot of a google alpha client. It's clearly identified as a Jabber client.
t -messenger-screenshot.html
Take a look: http://mymoustache.com/blog/2005/08/google-instan
My original impressions are that this is a hoax, given that it looks to be nothing more than a rebranded out-of-the-box jabber client (and it doesn't appear as though any of the locational features of meetroduction's client).
Also, what kind of idiot developer would post a screenshot of such a highly anticipated application? Discuss!
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 -
That's a bunch of rubbish. Think of the millions of hits Google get's a day. Now, just pop a little thing on there saying "New! Google IM!" and boom: the majority of Slashdot and the internet tech crowd downloads it. It goes into the paper the next day generating more downloads. I don't think they would even need to do a gaim type thing and crossover to AIM and whatnot.
Think of the possibilities though. The ability to google any text someone sends you. Online and offline chat (ala ICQ) via Gmail (maybe set it up so that if you're offline and someone tries to send you a message its forwarded to your Gmail account or something). They could do all sorts of fun stuff.
We can remember it for you wholesale.
That's what GMail does today, so where's the weak link? IM, where people do communicate a lot of information which gets lost to those who don't keep logs. There's already a very usable Webmessenger for MSN. Having this server-based means the log are available from anywhere. Heck, just getting rid of having a separate e-mail and IM program filling up my RAM my well be worth it.
It would really be nice if they stopped attacking in all directions and actually fixed something. Ok, they've got some really great technologies, such as Search and advertising. Orkut was a good idea, just not well implemented and a bit dated now. Scholar.google.com also a good idea but with out decent content, it might as well not exist.
Google needs focus. I'd really rather they stayed best at everything they choose to do, rather than attack in all directions.
I don't get this. Most systems, not to mention most users already have a rendering engine running. Using it to access an online IM system can't be a performance issue.
I just think it makes a lot more sense to keep applications that require online presence... online!