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Google plans instant-messaging service [/font]
Google Talk reported to combine text, voice calling
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Reuters[/font]
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Updated: 12:17 p.m. ET Aug. 23, 2005[/font]
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SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is set to introduce its own instant messaging system, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday, marking the expansion by the Web search leader into text and also voice communications.[/font]
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Citing unnamed sources "familiar with the service," the Los Angeles Times said that Google's Instant Messaging program would be called Google Talk and could be launched as early as Wednesday.[/font]
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In entering the hotly competitive messaging market, Google would be going up against some familiar rivals: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft. AOL is by far the dominant leader in the market, with some 40 million users of its AIM and ICQ brands. Yahoo has around 20 million and Microsoft's MSN Messenger numbers some 14 million users, according to recent comScore Media Metrix data. (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)[/font]
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Despite longtime promises of interoperability, however, users of each IM service are mostly confined to talking only with fellow users of the same service. Some programs, such as Trillian or Jabber, do work with multiple services, but their user base is much smaller. [/font]
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Google Talk also would go beyond the text-based IM to let users hold voice conversations with other computer users, the newspaper quoted a source as saying. [/font]
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A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's product plans.[/font]
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If confirmed, the combined computer text and voice-calling service would put Google in competition with a similar service pioneered by Skype, which has attracted tens of millions of users, especially in Europe, to its own service. Skype can be used on any modern PC with speakers and a microphone, but many people plug in headsets to their computers to make the process more "phone-like." [/font]
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Separately, independent journalist Om Malik on his blog pointed to technical clues that suggest Google is preparing to run an instant messaging service based on the Jabber open-source system.[/font]
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Jabber technology would allow Google instant message users to connect with established IM systems that also work with Jabber, including America Online's ICQ and Apple Computer Inc.'s iChat, Malik said.[/font]
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"This is the worst possible news for someone like Skype, because now they will be up against not two but three giants who want to offer a pale-version of Skype," he wrote.[/font]
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Earlier this week, Google said it was branching out beyond pure search to help users manage e-mail, instant messages, news headlines and music. It introduced a new service called the Google Sidebar, a stand-alone software program that sits on a user's desktop and provides "live" information updates.[/font]
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Over the past year or so, the company has expanded into e-mail, online maps, personalized news and more. Google's moves take it beyond its roots in Web search and closer to becoming a broad-based Internet media company.[/font]
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URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9050519/[/font]
