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Google Instant Messenger Coming Really (or Not?)
bach37 writes "Google is rumored to launch its own instant messenger tomorrow." Other sources are reporting that talk.google.com is running jabber. Of course we've also had stories about all this being rumors
I don't see what Google has to gain in doing this, surely it would be an incredible uphill battle for an IM released by them to capture any significant portion of the market against the established clients running over MSN's and AIM's protocols.
They would have to come up with something pretty interesting to cause enough buzz to get people to switch I think.
Well, tomorrow will tell by the looks of things, one way or the other.
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If this rumor is true, and I run my own Jabber server, can my users connect through my server into Google's users? Are directory and filesharing services mergeable, to appear to my users like I'm part of Google (authentication, etc)? Which IM gateway that gets my users onto the most IM networks, with the largest aggregate user reach?
--
make install -not war
And I just run into somebody on the street proclaiming that the world might fall to pieces tomorrow (actually claiming that the world will end tomorrow, and then asking for a donation. I failed to see the short term use of that donation, so I just wished him luck).
Anyway: Come back tomorrow and see if google really launched a IM. And if they do, then please not in google earth style or any other google windows only products. If they really want to play along with the big boys, they should make it crossplatform. It is what they owe their current status to!
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
They grabbed a lot of hotmail users at the time when they launched gmail. How is this any different? Microsoft grabbed tons of MSN Messenger users making ICQ's market share take a HUGE dive at that point (almost everyone I know switched over for example).
Why would they have nothing to gain and why would it be difficult? They offer something better (faster connections, less intrusive ads [since it would be supported by premium VoIP services], easier than remembering a number, more video features, more voice features, linking with cell phones, VoIP, more games, etc) and people will move to it. Better yet, support other messenger services (a-la Trillian... they can do this with Jabber for example) and why would anyone use MSN? There isn't really a barrier to entry. One geek will drag over their friends, and repeat.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
This seems to be a throwback to the 1990's portal strategy of "stickiness." That is, trying to keep users in the offered services as long as possible in order to market to them. I would be more inclined to believe in a Google messaging system if it was designed around the concepts of search. Google can already offer search via any IM service using a bot to return results just as they do via SMS. Google Desktop can search IM logs from any client that saves logs in a text file. So what's the advantage of yet another IM service? Sure it might raise the profile of Jabber but I don't see that much helping the situation. Unless they are going to unveil some form of speech archiving and searching, I don't see what use this will be.
Doesn't really seem to fit with their current strategy unless they tie it into gmail somehow.
Google's strategy is this: make as many people as possible click on their ads. Gmail was one extension of this idea. It let Google deliver ads not only when people were searching the Internet, but also when they read their emails. A Google IM service would do the same thing. Now Google would also be able to deliver ads when people were chatting.
In fact, if I were Google, I would be working on Google Browser. Then they could deliver ads whenever someone was browsing the Internet!
Personally, I couldn't care less if it's only BETA. I've been using quite a large amount of beta probrams from Google and I've yet to be disappointed. As far as tie ins, here's my idea:
.gmp(some made-up google map file extension) file to your friend which is imported into a pullout window in their GoogleDeskbar that they've been using for chat.
The reason everything is still in beta is because Google wants to find out what their 'core' set of applications are going to be. Once they find the real crowd pleaser beta applications, they can work on a final release of each with features that integrate all of them.
It may never happen, but I think an instant messenger service could be an interesting way to unite the applications, like drawing a map in a google earth and using it's GoogleChat plug-in to send the
It's just an idea.
Perfecting Discordia
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I doubt many of my friends would go through the hassle of switching even if Google Talk turns out to be far superior; an IM program is little use without people to talk to.
"Because the reality is, there's not a whole lot of difference between their search [engine] and anyone else's." :)
We don't need Google to be different then the other search engines, as long as it returns the most relevant results
If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough. (Alan Kay)
Who would want Google Ads on every page, only for the sake of Google making money?
If:
1) It requires a GMail account
2) It is automatically available to all GMail users from their web interfaces
Then:
3) It is a masterstroke. In one day they'll go from zero IM users to zillions. Bravo Google.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
If this makes Jabber more popular, i'm all for it. I dream of a world with an unified, standart and open IM system...
Me: sup crack?
Him: i r busy bunghole
I really don't want to see that stuff saved for posterity (or the day I forget to log out of Gmail before my wife uses the computer).
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
> Gmail is almost IM .. With the threading of the messages and the speed of
> it, I've had very rapid conversations going back and forth.
IM has never been about having rapid conversations back and forth. email, assuming you have a decent mail service, has always been capable of more rapid back-and-forth conversations than most current IM services can manage on a good day. We did this all the time when I was in college, using Pegasus Mail (still one of the best clients available) over a campus-wide Novell network. (There was a connection to the rest of the world too, for off-campus mail.)
And there has also always been IRC, since before IM was ever devised.
What is IM, then? What makes IM what it is? IM is about various kinds of notification: tracking the other user's online-ness (or not), hearing a sound when someone comes online, being interrupted (with a window popping to the front and stealing focus from whatever you were in the process of doing) whenever you receive a message, that sort of thing. These are features POP3 and SMTP don't really support (though they could have been extended to support it, but that's another matter).
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.