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Google Hires Gaim's Main Developer
astrab writes "According to Dirson's blog, Google's just hired Sean Egan (the main developer of Gaim open IM client), just the same day Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to link their respective proprietary IM networks." From the post: "While Yahoo! and Microsoft link their proprietary networks for Instant Messaging, Google bets on Open Protocols to make information universally accessible ... Currently, Google uses XMPP/Jabber specs, but they claim to be supporting open server-to-server federation, and work "to hear from other people in the communications industry about how best to build a federation model that is open, scalable". In fact, there are this month several tests with firms like EarthLink, Sipphone or PeopleCall. "
More google hi-res pr0n of geeky developers in the nude.
http://images.google.com/
Isn't it a pity that he was giving his time an effort out of a pure heart of charity and OSSness. Now he's a whore to the billion dollar corporate king of Internet advertizing. Google is in business for Google.
If they ever succeed in killing Microsoft they will keep right on making more money and serving up ads and taking over the Internet. You don't think so?
Has it ever bugged you that Google doesn't want to open source their search engine, or Gmail, or any of Google's other closed source software?
If you were consistent with yourself, it would bug the HECK out of you.
When have you actually see "video conferencing" used on a regular basis in a corporate environment? That is, in a day to day way that is actually *necessary*? I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to hit up the guy on a campus on the other side of the country and face-to-face with him when I could just paste in a defect number in Jabber and say "Hey, what's the news on this?" or something.
Video is largely overkill and jamming it into an instant messaging client is definitely overkill. They should be two separate things and left that way.
If it was such an important aspect, videophones would be selling like wild. They're not. Nobody cares. Nobody uses them. You'll just end up with a bunch of networked MySpace and LiveJournal dorks bombarding the networks with huge quantities of data tryinig to hit on each other and desparate chicks flashign their breasts and pathetic "couples" having "virtual dates" with people they've still never met. This sort of thing won't be put to much use, just like voice chat online hasnt' been put to much use. Do you do most of your commmunication online via jabber and email -- or do you actually do most of it via voice and video? Because if you do, I would be extremely surprised.
Again, not everything is more productive or efficient or effective or useful just because you slap video into it.
I would also doubt that "most people" use jabber to "communicate with their loved ones".