Google’s email strategy with it’s Gmail is clear but what about voice? It is not very clear for someone outside Google what the plans are. Google Talk, the text and voice chat application has not been updated for ages; Gizmo5, another PC chat client, has been purchased Google; Google Voice (ex Grand Central) opened it’s doors to the public in the US, etc.
I have been observing what moves Google has been taking in the last couple of years and I think I can understand where Google is heading in the voice and communications space.
Google Voice - the communication platform
Google Voice (ex Grand Central), together with Gmail will form the basis of the future Google communications offering. Apart from replacing your telephone provider it will also be the base on which other communication applications are to be built. Google Talk, Google Chat (Voice and Video Chat plugin), Gizmo5 and others will all be based on this platform.
Google Talk and Google Chat, Google Talk Gadget (sometimes called: Video and voice plug-in, Video chat plug-in)
Google Talk desktop application hasn’t been updated for ages. The GTalk installation distributive does not have support for the latest Windows Vista and Windows 7. Google Talk team has not been blogging about the desktop application for more than a year. Google Talk Labs has been announced in June 2008 but we haven’t seen any updates since then.
In contrary, Google Chat, short for Google voice and video chat plugin (web version of Google Talk) has been getting a lot of attention. Google Talk blog is full of new feature announcements and tips.
From these observations one would conclude that Google decided to drop the development of the desktop version and dedicate GTalk team to the web plug-in. Why would they do that? Because there is no point to re-invent the wheel. Google already has a desktop app for Windows, Mac OS and Linux since they purchased Gizmo5. Gizmo5 is far more sophisticated and is backed up by the right infrastructure that could be successfully merged with Google Voice services.
Gizmo5 - Skype killer
Google filled the missing part of the puzzle with the acquisition of Gizmo5. Gizmo5 has all the necessary functions and features to directly compete with Skype. Together with Google Voice this extended offering will beat Skype - there are many tasty features that Google Voice has and Skype doesn’t.
Impact?
Over the next few years we should see Google Voice and Gizmo5 merged into a single service. The service will become available in more countries gradually opening its’ doors to users from around the globe.
Skype, current monopoly in VoIP services (currently most people use Skype to make PC-to-phone calls), will start losing share to their new competitor - Google Voice + Gizmo5.
