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Let's face it. This isn't about games anymore.
googleI’d like to talk about the new Google Talk service. Now, before you click on something else, saying to yourself, “Christ, that’s all I’m hearing about today”, let me make one point. It’ll only take a minute.
All day, I’ve been reading about how Google Talk’s functionality is sub-par. I’ve been hearing about how it’s not a good telephony system, because it doesn’t have voice mail, an answering machine, or email-able recordings. I’ve been hearing about how it’s not a good Instant messaging system, because it doesn’t allow group chats, buddy lists, or even clever emoticons. Most of all, I’m hearing that Google is in over their heads because they are jumping into an arena that has already been settled by other companies.
Please allow me to say that these criticisms, while I’m sure they are well meant, are all beside the point. The real point is that Google made an IM system.
Ever heard of Skype? Ever seen an article about Project Gizmo? Ever thought about buying a SIPhone? No? That’s because they aren’t big companies. They aren’t well known. They boast as many as ten million users total. Which, don’t get me wrong, is a prodigious number. It’s almost as many hits as Google gets in a single day!
By comparison, the world’s largest web company is making an IM system. It doesn’t have to be the best one around. What it does have to do is offer a bare set of features that the vast majority of people will use. That’s because, unlike AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Skype, Project Gizmo, or any of the others, Google will bring millions of people into this in the next few months.
Right out of the box, Google is allowing people to use telephony across the internet. And it’s pretty good stuff, too. It’s got good sound, and it’s incredibly easy to use.
This is why it is as basic as it is. Google needed something that installed easily (you download a program that takes about as long as loading the banner for Fark), you use a free web mail account (which they just opened up so that anyone can sign up for a new one), and boom, you’re making free calls to anyone in the world. No problems with calibrating your microphone, making sure that your speakers are connected properly, making test calls to the server to make sure that you’re internet connection works. . . you just install it, and it works.
Also, the fact that it has very few features means that your interface isn’t cluttered with a lot of useless crap that seems to be packaged with every other IM (What? I don’t get my emoticon kitty, that plays a little meow on my friends system?). Instead, you have a program that any user (no matter how computer literate they are) can use without difficulty. That is key, because as I said, Google can bring in millions of people in just a few days.
By the way, speaking of popularity: on this day, I’ve seen stories about Google Talk on CBS, CNN, and ABC. It’s featured on Fark, Boing Boing, Slashdot, and every other place that computer users go. Face it, there has never been a product launch that received this much press. How can they be compared to the other telephony companies out there? How can it even be considered competition?
One other thing. While all the other major carriers use their own proprietary networks, Google has opened theirs up so that an open-source
IM (like GAIM, or Apple's IChat) can connect to it. The other major carriers are trying to pull users between them. They fight over people, and lock their users away in hopes that the trapped users will bring their friends along. Google, on the other hand, is letting people use any reader they want. This means that, if nothing else, we can all talk to each other, no matter who we signed up with.
Google will win. They aren’t stupid. The very Spartan look of their IM shows their intelligence, and their knowledge of their clients. They will bring millions of people into IM, they will give them an easy way to make free calls to all their friends, and if the clients want to use other IM services, Google helps them with the movement. All this reminds me of the greatest business motto I've ever heard, "Don't be evil."
Brand Gamblin
gamecoder @ MindSay
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