August 23, 2005
(Reuters)
Google Inc. is set to introduce its own instant messaging system, the Los Angeles Times reported today. The move marks the Web search leader's expansion into text and also voice communications.
Citing unnamed sources "familiar with the service," the newspaper said that Google's instant messaging program would be called Google Talk and could be launched as early as tomorrow. Google Talk goes beyond text-based instant messaging, using a computer keyboard to let users hold voice conversations with other computer users, the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the company's plans.
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.
Separately, independent journalist Om Malik wrote in his blog about technical clues that suggest that Google is preparing to run an instant messaging service based on the open-source system Jabber. That would allow Google instant messaging users to connect with established IM systems that also work with Jabber, including America Online Inc.'s ICQ and Apple Computer Inc.'s iChat, Malik said.
"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.
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 (see "Google bypasses browser to search PC drives, Web").
Over the past year or so, the company has expanded into e-mail, online maps, personalized news and more.
The product push comes as rivals Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are all looking to upgrade existing instant messaging systems and expand into new Internet phone-calling services.
Google's moves take it beyond its roots in Web search and closer to becoming a broad-based Internet media company. With instant messaging, Google would be breaking into a market in which its major competitors boast tens of millions of subscribers to their established instant messaging services.
AOL, with its AIM and ICQ brands, has more than 40 million IM users in the U.S. alone. Yahoo has about 20 million users, and Microsoft's MSN Messenger has some 14 million users, according to recent comScore Media Metrix data.