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Google, Skype and the Future of IM
Matt Veenstra sent in a nice little piece of rumor mongering about how Google's new Talk/Jabber/IM thing is just a stepping stone, but it's really just a foreshadowing of
their future buyout of Skype. Worth some thought anyway.
Honestly, is a story based at least marginally on fact too much to ask? A entire article without one scrap of evidence to back it up...in fact, in under thirty seconds I was able to find two articles that would seem to contradict this assertion.
How exactly did this make it onto Slashdot?
Google, Skype and the Future of IM
Oh, I see...
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
But I guess history shows that the Skype creators could sell their creation to set out for something else. That's what they did with Kazaa anyway.
Clever signature text goes here.
They already have VoIP built into their client and a huge marketing machine, including millions of viral marketing droids, working in their favor.
A Google topic. I was startin' to get the jitters waiting for my fix. Tx Taco!
As a side note, Im sure we would soon see google integrate everything where we search for a person/name, it brings up his address, phone number (both currently found by searching for number), icon to send email, IM or call directly, all a click away. Imagine that!
As I understand it, Skype can route your call to standard landlines/mobiles as well. Google Talk (at the moment) cannot.
-Jar.
Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
Check out Kottke's article GoogleOS? YahooOS? MozillaOS? WebOS?. In which he speculates about the future of the WebOS.
If Google were planning on buying out Skype, why would they release a version of Google Talk with their own implementation of voice chat? Doesn't make much sense to me. Furthermore, has Google ever bought a company worth that much before? Most of their aqcuisitions seem to be companies that have good software but aren't very popular, therefore, they Google gets quite a bargain by purchasing them for far less than they're worth. Skype doesn't fit that bill, imo.
Since we're jumping to conclusions about Google's corporate strategy today, I'll go ahead and give mine. It seems to me like Google wants to get into the field with their product and see where it goes.
Google Talk seems pretty barebones at the moment, but if we remember correctly, so was Gmail when it first came out. I've had it from day 3 or 4, and it wasn't really all that great at the time--the only thing to write home about was the amount of space you have.
Anyway, that seems to be Google's strategy with everything--launch a product in beta, then continuously improve it until everyone loves it. I could be wrong, but it seems like they would be competing with Skype and using their own in-house programs, rather than buying them out.
Just a thought...
Grammar Lesson: you're is a contraction of "you are"; your means you possess something; yore means days gone by.
Worth some thought anyway.
Or not. I have better things to think about than rumors of Google buying companies they haven't offered to purchase. Like commenting on this story about the rumors!
Google respects and protects the privacy of individuals that use our services. Google Talk gives you control over whom you talk with, whom you block, and who can see your online status. Additionally, Google only requires minimal personal information--just your name and Gmail address--for you to use Google Talk.
Google Talk currently does not encrypt chats or calls. But we are working hard to make many improvements to Google Talk while it is in beta, and we plan to fully support encryption of chats and calls before our official release.
When you use Google Talk, you can choose to have your IM chats stored locally on your own computer so that you have a chat history. Google does not collect the content of instant message chats or voice conversations. As with all major IM services, Google Talk will collect certain log information created in the course of a conversation. This information is for Google's internal use only, to maintain statistics on usage and to improve our service and the user experience. We do not permanently store any personally-identifying information in the Google Talk logs. And we do not log any of the content of your chats or calls."
Good enough for you?
Also notable is that this is the first time I can think of that they've actually alluded to the Official Release of one of their perpetual betas.
useless sig advice - Read Nabokov.
If you read the google talk about and developer pages,
they clearly say that Google is committed to open standards. Skype is certainly not an open standard!
http://www.google.com/talk/about.html
http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html
If you send email to someone on gmail, or you IM someone who's using Google-Talk, sure, Google could have a copy of that.
But lets be realistic. Google probably doesn't want any information about *you*, they probably want to *aggregate information*, which is what they've been doing all along.
This is all an extension of search. Through all the "omg", "lol", and "haha"s in Instant Messenger, there's thousands of words that can be associated with both each other and with other links. There's thousands of white-listed and black-listed participants, because people naturally filter their conversations. They don't want a database about *you*, they want a relational database about *communication*, to make it easier to find out what someone means when they type something like "river bank" or "white house".
It's all about relationships between language. Conversation is a natural extension. They provide a service, they get tons of data.
At least, this is what I would be doing with the data. Google might not be doing that.
Open-source (it uses Jabber!) IM that is backed by Google? Yes please!
I don't know about you, but I want to have "one IM to rule them all" that is also open source. Jabber was the prime candidate, but it was rather minor when compared to MSN, AIM and the like. Not anymore. Google is about to increase the number of people using Jabber by order of magnitude!
With Google's help, we just might get an IM-infrastructure that is based on open source and open standards. No need to mess around with MSN and the like, just use Jabber. No need to work around proprietary protocols.
If Google manages to put VOIP in there as well, more power to them! Once system for all your IM'ing and VOIPping. Based on open standards. Based on open source. With millions of users. Yes please! No longer would we have to rely on Skype for clients and service. No longer would we have to worry when MS or AOL breaks our IM-clients with "updated" versions of their protocol.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Well until Google gives me a reason not to trust them, I will. They actively compete on their merits, not on monopoly or force. If you search for an address they still give you links for Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Mapquest. They have donated large sums of money to OSS and have paid for many developers to work on it over them summer. Now they are using their weight to standardize instant messaging the way e-mail is standardized. If you read Google Talk's site, you'll see that a big initiative is getting instant messaging into a state like e-mail is where you can IM anyone on any network from any IM client. Jabber has server2server capabilities and thus will greatly help this effort. If I ever sense that they are misusing my information, then I'll think about leaving them, but until then, they have my full support. They have literally made the internet a better place to be.
Regards,
Steve
Michael Robertson
Quote "But there's something much more noteworthy about the announcement. Google is agreeing to connect to other networks - something the big three instant messaging companies have refused to do. My company, SIPphone, has agreed to join into a federation with Google to use open standards and allow our customers to trade instant messages and voice calls. "
That's from the latest newsletter, which will eventually be at http://www.michaelrobertson.com/index.php when his webmaster gets off his ass and posts the latest one.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Well said.
Having spent a while this morning instlling it, and generally buggering about with it, I was left with the distinct impression that this is the thin end of another GoogleWedge (TM).
In summary:
but
- It has millions of ready made users with gmail accounts.
- It has a surprisingly respectful user interface that is a joy to use.
- It has potential to be extended from day one (unlike AIM or YIM where the owners have fought to keep the protocols closed and proprietary.
If I were to be really speculative I'd say that the most significant effect of todays beta launch is that it positions Google as a credible competitor to Skype, which may lower Skype's valuation, and thus make it a more attractive aquisition.boakes.org
True, however, RTFS and you will see they plan to partner with the Gizmo Project, which has in- and out-bound calls at rates comperable to SkypeIn and SkypeOut. Plus, the whole thing is open.
There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.