 |  |
 |
Criticism of the product itself has divided along lines that, perhaps predictably, depend on the author’s feelings about how Google compares with Microsoft’s feature-heavy approach. Google Talk is therefore either quick, simple and “refreshingly uncluttered”, or “Spartan”, “Stone Age”, and fatally lacking familiar bells and whistles like emoticons.
The tall poppy syndrome is evident. Google, with its inflated share price and overflowing coffers, is getting too big for its bootstraps. Is Google about to take over from Microsoft as the Great Satan? some commentators ask.
Microsoft is certainly taking notice. On the same day, although overshadowed by the excitement Google Talk generated, Microsoft released a new version of its IM client MSN Messenger, which mainly addressed users’ quality gripes. And earlier this year, Bill Gates told Fortune magazine that Google was “more like us than anyone else we have ever competed with.”
Google's software currently works only with Windows, but being Jabber-based, can work with other Jabber-compliant platforms. We can expect more openness, since Google’s second great attraction (after being completely free to users) is that it doesn’t tie you in.
Google Talk is built on XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), an open framework that allows it to connect easily with other open-platform messa ging systems such as iChat. Gartner Group comments: “This structure could bring about IM interoperability among the major players, if Google gains enough market traction to force changes.”
Gartner says that, as a latecomer, Google Talk will have to fight to gain market share. In particular, it must come up with a compelling reason for IM users to change brands. ”Asking users who have built large buddy lists and social networks to move to another IM platform will be a major marketing challenge.”
 |  |
 |  |
Gartner promptly does its bit to scupper a major chunk of the potential market by recommending that corporate users “prohibit the use of Google Talk to avoid having to manage yet another public IM network”.
Google also announced a new version of its desktop search, which quickly and efficiently addressed the major criticisms of the original release last autumn, from Gartner’s strictures about security to the limitations on searchable document types. Microsoft’s built-in search tool has none of Google’s speed and simplicity, and their response, unlikely to be seen before the end of 2006, will characteristically focus on features rather than performance.
One analyst, quoted in Forbes magazine, said recent announcements give “a clear indication of Google's intention to allow consumers to bypass Microsoft while accessing information."
On its traditional ground, Google is continuing to consolidate its market share, with Google Search holding 47 percent of the market, up from 46.2 the year before, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. This slight rise is at the expense of Yahoo, down from 22.5 to 22.3, while MSN Search trails at 12.5 percent.
The Voice over IP component of Google Talk threatens the European-based Skype Technologies, which responded quickly by saying it would make its product more widely available and easier to use, targetting third party developers and bloggers in particular.
Skype has over 50 million registered users, but this is a fleabite compared to Google’s regular userbase, which makes it the most-visited site in many countries around the world. On the other hand of course, the majority of Google’s users are casual and unregistered, and Google Talk is only available to the much smaller number of invitation-only Gmail users. (A Gmail account is required to download the Google Talk client.) Skype has over a million, and possibly as many as two million paid subscribers to its SkypeOut and SkypeIn services, which allows Internet telephony users to call traditional telephones. Google’s plans are currently only for PC-to-PC calls. Skype is also well advanced in work with traditional telephony operators, to provide links between services.
 | |
 |  |
This is well outside Google’s area of expertise. Some wilder blog rumours suggest Skype may now be a logical acquisition target for Google.
Traditional telecoms operators, up to 90 percent of whose revenues come from fixed-line calls, are already busy adding value to their services to compete with the free or subscription-only VoIP providers. Google’s announcements may also have sent shivers round the over-supplied and pared-to-the-bone mobile phone industry, since Google has announced that it will begin offering Gmail registration via mobile phone.
Roger Entner, VP Wireless Telecoms for the UK-based analysts Ovum, says that Google also intends to enter the WiFi hotspot market in the US through a free ad-supported model. “This is putting commercial WiFi providers in a potentially lethal position due to the increasing onslaught of free municipal networks on one side and free Google hotspots on the other. Commercial WiFi providers are basically squeezed in the middle and are condemned to wither away.” Another round of wireless spectrum sales is due in the US, and Google’s huge pots of cash could enable it to buy itself a dominant position. “This way Google could realise its vision of making information universally available,” Entner says. But with no experience as a service provider, Google could be out of its depth.
Do these various initiatives indicate that Google is getting ready to take over the world? So far the company has relied on providing free, sometimes cheap and cheerful but always effective products to build its userbase, avoiding strong-arm tactics like proprietary lock-in. Competitive suppliers may have to pull their socks up, but the rest of us can probably relax. One indication of Google’s unthreatening and laid-back approach is that you can read the knocking copy about Google Talk, and the “new Great Satan” scare stories, simply by typing “Google” into Google News. “Take it or leave it” continues to be the essence of the Google proposition.
No comments:
Post a Comment