Google to Offer Instant Messaging and Voice Communications on Web By JOHN MARKOFF http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/technology/24google.html?pagewanted=print
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 23 - Google, the Internet search innovator, will make its first direct challenge to the broader communications industry on Wednesday when it introduces an instant-messaging and voice communication service for personal computers. The program, Google Talk, will allow its users to exchange text messages and converse through their computers with others at remote locations. Other instant-messaging services offer similar capabilities, but Google said the appeal of its system would come from its voice quality, based on audio technology it has developed. As with other Google product introductions, the company has not linked the new service with a plan for making money, saying only that it was likely to look for revenue opportunities in the future. But the planned introduction is the clearest evidence yet that Google has vast ambitions to move beyond its Web search roots and create a company spanning the full range of digital information. "This begs the question of what Google defines themselves as," said Allen Weiner, an Internet analyst at Gartner, a market research firm. "I believe they're now a media company whether or not they want to admit it." In choosing to compete directly with the three major providers of instant messaging - AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo - Google has chosen a standard known as Jabber, which has been widely embraced by proponents of open-source software. The three major messaging services are largely islands that do not permit their users to send messages to and from competing services. But there have been reports that the Jabber open-source organization is preparing to interconnect with AOL, which is the largest provider of messaging with its AOL Instant Messenger system, known as AIM. More than 80 million Americans used instant-messaging services as of July, according to comScore Media Metrix. Of those users, 41.6 million used AIM, 19.1 million used Yahoo Messenger and 14.1 million used MSN Messenger. Although comScore does not track Jabber users, Peter Saint-Andre, the executive director of the Jabber Software Foundation, cited estimates by Osterman Research, a research and analysis firm specializing in messaging and digital collaboration, that 13.5 million use the Jabber standard. A Google executive said the company was hoping to use the Jabber standard to interconnect the messaging industry. "We are going to start working to federate all the other networks," said the executive, Georges Harik, a product management director who is responsible for Google Talk and several other services. At the start, Google Talk users will be able to exchange text messages with users of other Jabber-compatible software - including Apple's iChat service and EarthLink - but they will be able to converse only with other Google Talk users. (Google intends to make its voice technology interoperable with other systems at a later stage.) Google plans to link availability of its instant-messaging service to its e-mail service, Gmail, currently in public testing. The Gmail service will now be made generally available, and a Gmail address will function as a user's instant-messaging identity as well. Users can sign up for both services at google.com/talk; a mobile phone number must be entered as part of a measure to keep spam operators from stockpiling addresses. At present, Mr. Harik would only say that there are "several million" Gmail customers, but he would not disclose a precise number. He said that Google saw its entry into the communications world in the context of a corporate mission of organizing and making all of the world's information accessible. "It is important that you be able to find information, but it is also important that you be able to communicate it," Mr. Harik said. The strategic shift is certain to change both the way Google's competitors and its partners view the company, which has quickly come to be a dominant force in both the advertising and Internet world. For example, AOL is still a significant Google partner for search results, but Google Talk is a direct competitive threat to the messaging world that AOL now dominates. Moreover, analysts expect Google to move quickly beyond instant messaging to add other voice and communication services, meaning that it is likely to compete against other providers of voice-over-Internet phone service like Vonage and Skype as well as communication industry giants. That may lead to the creation of competitive barriers that Google has not previously faced. "It will be interesting to see if other companies try to shut them out," said Benjamin Schachter, an Internet analyst at UBS Securities, of which Google has been a recent client. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
