---------- forwarded message ---------- From: Shubhranshu Choudhary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 24-Aug-2005 19:46 Subject: [bytesforall_readers] " Better than Skype" To: bytesforall_re. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Google Talk launch sends clear message to rivals > > Jack Schofield > Wednesday August 24, 2005 > The Guardian > > Google will today launch its long-awaited instant messaging and internet telephony service Google Talk, throwing down the gauntlet to rivals such as AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN. "We hope to make a fairly big change to the way messaging is done," explained Google's director of product management, Georges Harik. The initial test service, which does not yet carry any money-making advertisements, follows other new services from the American internet group, including its Gmail email and Google maps. These services are designed to help Google move from being merely a search engine to a web portal that competes with similar offerings from Yahoo! and MSN. Portals provide utilities such as mail and messaging that keep users on the site, as opposed to search, which sends them elsewhere. Google's launch of an instant messaging service had been widely predicted, but two things make it unusual. First, it is based mainly on open standards, rather than being closed and proprietary. Second, the offering includes internet telephony using voice over internet protocol technology. Internet telephony is already a common addition to instant messaging services, but Google Talk appears strong enough to compete with industry leader Skype. Mr Harik said the company has licensed the same third-party technology or codec - which converts analogue signals such as speech into a digital format so it can be transmitted over the web - as Skype and aims to offer similar voice quality. However, while Skype's technology is proprietary, Google's is based on internet standards, as far as this is technically possible. But Google Talk will only be available to people with existing Google Gmail accounts as the two will share address books. Initially it only works with the software Google has written for Microsoft Windows. Google is also taking a much more open approach to its instant messaging service than rivals. The market is constrained by the fact that the most popular services - MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and AOL's AIM and ICQ - generally do not allow users to send messages to those on rival services. Google hopes to change that by basing its software on emerging internet standards and by making the program interface available to third-party software developers. This will allow some existing instant messenger software to work with Google, so Google Talk users will not be forced to use Google's software to send messages. Google shares closed up 2% at [dollar sign]279.58 yesterday on the Nasdaq exchange. They floated a year ago at [dollar sign]85. > http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1555170,00.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Shubhranshu Choudhary Freelance Journalist > Ph : + 91 98110 66749 e mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://36garh.notlong.com http://smitashu.8m.net > > YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS > Visit your group "bytesforall_readers" on the web. > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. >
