GTalk adding multichat (maybe). Conference calling too?
A baggle of bloggers (Vecosys, Mashable, Startup Meme, ben barren, Google Blogoscoped, gSpy, Garett Rogers) are jumping on Martin's interpretation of some user interface text for a Google system.
The text: "NAME has joined".
Explanation: System messages when user joined or left a muc conversation"
Their guess: "muc" is short for "multi user chat".
My guess: "multi user call"
Huge value escalating to live talk from chat, from multichat to conference calling. Google is lining up conversational triggers like email, Google documents, calendar events (time to talk with X about Y), videos/photos, even news (join a conference call with other English-speakers about this Google News headline).
Did I hear someone say monetization? Anyone remember Google's UK "click-to-call" advertising pilot? How would you like to talk with other customers? Or other people who are searching for the same product? Conversation is sticky in the advertising sense. And live talk can multiply the effect of an ad, sometimes helping people move to action.
Constraints to overcome:
- Voice, firewall traversal, and switching technologies. They have it or can buy it.
- Metcalfe's Law. Plenty of gmail users make for a satisfyingly humongous network. AOL/AIM interop, coming sooooon, will just add to Google's network's value.
Skype will no doubt be better at conference calling quality and scale this year. Portal power is Google's advantage: you'll find Google Talk in many meaningful contexts. Those opportunities for goal-driven conversation will be attractive, if not downright seductive.
Skype is the only major VoIM player without a portal of its own. It relies on the portals of strangers (pardon my Gone With The Wind reference). That's why a powerful Skype web-service API is strategic. By exposing carefully constructed sockets to access Skype's core services, Skype can let everyone plug any web app, any web site, and most desktop and mobile apps into the Skype network. Skype could have an abundance of contexts greater than the top portals combined.
Technorati tags: skypejournal, gtalk, googletalk, googlephone, chat, im, instantmessaging, multichat, conferencing, conferencecall, google, google talk, multiparty, mashable, vecosys, startupmeme, benbarren, gspy
