Google Instant Messenger Coming Really (or Not?)

bach37 writes "Google is rumored to launch its own instant messenger tomorrow." Other sources are reporting that talk.google.com is running jabber. Of course we've also had stories about all this being rumors

Everything?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is another case of a company trying to do everything. I just don't get it. Is Google going to move into consumer electronics next?

Just "Being Google" not enough.

[Bitsy Boffin]

I don't see what Google has to gain in doing this, surely it would be an incredible uphill battle for an IM released by them to capture any significant portion of the market against the established clients running over MSN's and AIM's protocols.

They would have to come up with something pretty interesting to cause enough buzz to get people to switch I think.

Well, tomorrow will tell by the looks of things, one way or the other.

Re:Just "Being Google" not enough.

[quark101]

Part of the allure though is that it will be by Google. Their name alone is enough to make some people switch. In the eyes of many, Google can do no wrong, especially since it has been releasing so many cool programs for free, ala Google Earth, the Sidebar, Gmail, etc.

Gabber?

[Doc Ruby]

If this rumor is true, and I run my own Jabber server, can my users connect through my server into Google's users? Are directory and filesharing services mergeable, to appear to my users like I'm part of Google (authentication, etc)? Which IM gateway that gets my users onto the most IM networks, with the largest aggregate user reach?

Google might launch tomorrow

[jurt1235]

And I just run into somebody on the street proclaiming that the world might fall to pieces tomorrow (actually claiming that the world will end tomorrow, and then asking for a donation. I failed to see the short term use of that donation, so I just wished him luck).

Anyway: Come back tomorrow and see if google really launched a IM. And if they do, then please not in google earth style or any other google windows only products. If they really want to play along with the big boys, they should make it crossplatform. It is what they owe their current status to!

Hotmail

[PhYrE2k2]

They grabbed a lot of hotmail users at the time when they launched gmail. How is this any different? Microsoft grabbed tons of MSN Messenger users making ICQ's market share take a HUGE dive at that point (almost everyone I know switched over for example).

Why would they have nothing to gain and why would it be difficult? They offer something better (faster connections, less intrusive ads [since it would be supported by premium VoIP services], easier than remembering a number, more video features, more voice features, linking with cell phones, VoIP, more games, etc) and people will move to it. Better yet, support other messenger services (a-la Trillian... they can do this with Jabber for example) and why would anyone use MSN? There isn't really a barrier to entry. One geek will drag over their friends, and repeat.

-M

Re:Just "Being Google" not enough.

[grasshoppa]

jabber may well be "something pretty interesting". Several of us are already running a jabber server ( which has plugins to other services, btw ).

If they released an IM service based on jabber, they'd already have an install base ( albeit, not as large as aim/msn ), with the capabilities to talk to the other services through the server of your choice.

The trick would be releasing a decent client. I know of only one jabber client currently that's usable on a daily basis, the rest are just too awkward or weird ( interface design is not "easy" it would seem, or most people leave it as an afterthought, if it even gets that much ).

We'll see, regardless, over the next few days. I think it'd be interesting to see google jump behind jabber. That might give the project the kick in the ass it needs.

Fail to see the point

[Octagon Most]

This seems to be a throwback to the 1990's portal strategy of "stickiness." That is, trying to keep users in the offered services as long as possible in order to market to them. I would be more inclined to believe in a Google messaging system if it was designed around the concepts of search. Google can already offer search via any IM service using a bot to return results just as they do via SMS. Google Desktop can search IM logs from any client that saves logs in a text file. So what's the advantage of yet another IM service? Sure it might raise the profile of Jabber but I don't see that much helping the situation. Unless they are going to unveil some form of speech archiving and searching, I don't see what use this will be.

Why? AIM won't go away.

[dividedsky319]

I doubt you're going to get many people to switch from AIM.

The amount of users on AIM is the main pull to get it... If you want to talk to someone, most likely their IM program of choice is AIM. You're not going to switch, unless everyone you talk to switches as well... and I don't sense a mass exodus coming anytime soon.

Go to a college campus, and nearly everyone has a screen name on AIM... I know competition is good, but unless all these IM programs can talk amongst each other, I don't see anything overtaking AIM anytime soon.

Re:180 degrees?

[the_mighty_$]

Doesn't really seem to fit with their current strategy unless they tie it into gmail somehow.

Google's strategy is this: make as many people as possible click on their ads. Gmail was one extension of this idea. It let Google deliver ads not only when people were searching the Internet, but also when they read their emails. A Google IM service would do the same thing. Now Google would also be able to deliver ads when people were chatting.

In fact, if I were Google, I would be working on Google Browser. Then they could deliver ads whenever someone was browsing the Internet!

Re:Revolutionary

[NelsonM]

I agree. Google has really shown what you can do when you put the user first, especially with Google maps. Back when Mapquest was king, I hated looking directions up online and would rather get out an atlas, but Google has really made navigating maps online a breeze. Hopefully they bring their ease-of-use to the IM world.

Re:180 degrees?

[programic]

Actually, it does fit in. They know what you search for. They know whats in your email. What if they knew what was in your IMs?

Think of how valuable that information would be to a marketer.

Re:Hotmail

[senzafine]

The difference between switching email providers and IM providers is that email is universal. If i sign up today for a GMail account I can use it to communicate with anyone who has an email address. However, with IM that's not the case. I think it would be awesome if they released an IM program that connected to a propietary Google protocol but also allowed me to connect to AIM. Then I wouldn't have to use trillian anymore (even though I love trillian).

Re:if it comes out...

[Iriel]

Personally, I couldn't care less if it's only BETA. I've been using quite a large amount of beta probrams from Google and I've yet to be disappointed. As far as tie ins, here's my idea:

The reason everything is still in beta is because Google wants to find out what their 'core' set of applications are going to be. Once they find the real crowd pleaser beta applications, they can work on a final release of each with features that integrate all of them.

It may never happen, but I think an instant messenger service could be an interesting way to unite the applications, like drawing a map in a google earth and using it's GoogleChat plug-in to send the .gmp(some made-up google map file extension) file to your friend which is imported into a pullout window in their GoogleDeskbar that they've been using for chat.

It's just an idea.

I'll use it...

[Tezprice]

I'll be happy to use it if it can connect to at least some of the established networks (e.g. MSN messenger).

I doubt many of my friends would go through the hassle of switching even if Google Talk turns out to be far superior; an IM program is little use without people to talk to.

Different? Why?

[hritcu]

"Because the reality is, there's not a whole lot of difference between their search [engine] and anyone else's."
We don't need Google to be different then the other search engines, as long as it returns the most relevant results :)

GAIM anyone?

[dave1g]

GAIM was a rather large recipient in the summer of code stuff google did this summer.

I already use gaim on windows, because I was fed up with having aim, yahoo, and MSN, Just to talk to a few people on each. They all baloon to 20+ MB of ram each while running. Gaim never reaches 20 while providing me with the same functionality.

The only problem is the file transfer and A/V chat features. When I want to use those I fire up the official client.

Here is hoping that google just throws some programmers at gaim and then rebrands it.

Re:Just "Being Google" not enough.

[hritcu]

GAIM supports Jabber pretty well. In fact with a gool tool like GAIM it makes little difference what protocol you use, the interface is consistent. And this also happens across platforms.

Re:You mean "Opera"?

[Yolegoman]

Who would want Google Ads on every page, only for the sake of Google making money?

Re:if it comes out...

[KDan]

If:

1) It requires a GMail account
2) It is automatically available to all GMail users from their web interfaces

Then:

3) It is a masterstroke. In one day they'll go from zero IM users to zillions. Bravo Google.

Daniel

Jabber!

[Lisandro]

If this makes Jabber more popular, i'm all for it. I dream of a world with an unified, standart and open IM system...

Ads Infinitum

[NetSettler]

I wonder if Google will monitor what is being chatted about and throw up relevant banner ads.

I think people would be pretty alarmed if as soon as they started talking about pizza on the telephone, an advertisement for a local pizza place appeared on the LCD screen of their phone base without their asking. In that context, it sounds downright creepy. There may be a legal distinction between phones and IM services, but I think most people would say there's no material moral difference.

This seems like a slippery slope. It seems a short step from offering ads based on what people are saying to taking on what people are saying (and reporting those stats to third parties). Certainly the use of "usage stats" are critical to Google's interface to purchasing an AdWords campaign.

And what if the "things people are talking about" are collected with the intent of not being individually identifiable, but in some cases do turn out to be identifiable. This problem has come up with zip codes. People sometimes track them thinking they are anonymous. But some 9-digit zips identify a particular street address, and if only one person lives there, saying that "all people in this zip code have the following buying habits" is the same as naming the person who lives there and saying he has those buying habits if the name can be accessed by reverse lookup. In the case of income surveys by zipcode, this can expose income for certain individuals and, for example, injure their bargaining position when searching for a job or selling a house.

.. and if that's not enough to make you nervous, there's always the full text search issue [slashdot.org] ... ;)

Re:Why? AIM won't go away.

[BewireNomali]

Most students I know are more likely to be on Yahoo, which easily outstrips AIM in terms of features, but the point stands.

Most people I know don't switch IM clients. You add them to the ones you already use. So AIM has the largest user base because they were first. I guess the question is, how many IM clients is too many, and will a client like Trillian obviate the intended utility of their product?

Re:Feature

[Just Some Guy]

As long as you can actually delete (and not just archive) chats, yeah, that could be cool. I suspect, though, that many people say a lot of things in IM that they'd never put in an email. I have one friend that I still use the "LAN party chat style" with:

Me: sup crack?
Him: i r busy bunghole

I really don't want to see that stuff saved for posterity (or the day I forget to log out of Gmail before my wife uses the computer).

Re:Multiplatform? I think not.

[Anonymous Coward]

If it is internal it should only be available from the internal network.

But then how would they receive messages from other (non-Google) Jabber users?

Re:Google might launch tomorrow

[RAMMS+EIN]

``If they really want to play along with the big boys, they should make it crossplatform.''

Because all the big boys (AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo) make their clients cross-platform, too? Seriously, that's not going to matter one bit. Clients will be written for whatever protocol they end up using. In all likelihood, that protocol will be Jabber, and there are already half a bazillion clients for that on many platforms.

``It is what they owe their current status to!''

No. They owe their current status to providing simply the best search engine. And since that's a good website, off course it's cross-platform. But they would probably be nearly as big if their site were somehow Windows-only.

Re:180 degrees?

[TedCheshireAcad]

Why doesn't slashdot.org just redirect to the Google PR department?

Honestly, it's getting a little tiring.

Re:Feature

[Skim123]

If you use IM to communicate business matters, logs are essential. (I do programming/consulting from home, and use IM, Skype, and POTS to stay in touch with my clients, so the IM log is nice if there is a question from a previous chat.)

Granted, personal IMs are 99% deletable, in my experience.

Re:180 degrees?

[jonadab]

> Gmail is almost IM .. With the threading of the messages and the speed of
> it, I've had very rapid conversations going back and forth.

IM has never been about having rapid conversations back and forth. email, assuming you have a decent mail service, has always been capable of more rapid back-and-forth conversations than most current IM services can manage on a good day. We did this all the time when I was in college, using Pegasus Mail (still one of the best clients available) over a campus-wide Novell network. (There was a connection to the rest of the world too, for off-campus mail.)

And there has also always been IRC, since before IM was ever devised.

What is IM, then? What makes IM what it is? IM is about various kinds of notification: tracking the other user's online-ness (or not), hearing a sound when someone comes online, being interrupted (with a window popping to the front and stealing focus from whatever you were in the process of doing) whenever you receive a message, that sort of thing. These are features POP3 and SMTP don't really support (though they could have been extended to support it, but that's another matter).