Google Talk Creates Universally Available VOiP Service

With the past record of Google’s ability to enter into and quickly dominate entirely new fields, an incursion by Google into new territory is definitely something worth taking seriously. Voice over Internet Protocol technology is no different, and right now Google appears to be making a play for a greater share of the VoIP market. There are several ways in which Google could come become a bigger player in the VoIP market. One of them is through its messenger service. Right now Google Talk is an instant messenger service that is capable of voice transmission, as well as its standard text transmission. It’s still limited to contacting other people using Google Talk and several other Instant Messenger services like GAIM, Trillian, iChat, Psi, and Adium.

That said though, Google supposedly has plans to make changes to Google Talk that would make it compatible with more traditional telephone systems. If that happens, it would obviously be much easier to get access to what would resemble a fully functional VoIP service simply by downloading a free program from Google.

This would, of course, have a major impact on established telephone service providers. Right now, one of the major impediments that VoIP technology has to becoming a major threat to conventional telecommunications companies is the fact that the VoIP services are either obscure and not as user friendly, or require the purchase of an actual monthly subscription. With Google Talk, neither of those factors would be an impediment. Google is well enough known to attract attention, the version of Google Talk that would interface with normal telecommunication systems would probably be relatively easy to use, and it would in all likelihood be free to download and not be subject to a monthly fee. This could make it a major threat to the conventional telecommunications system and the industry that relies on it being the means of choice for providing people with voice communication.

One thing that would get in the way of Google Talk becoming serious competition to commercial VoIP services would come from the fact that because of its nature the upcoming version of Google Talk would probably not have the kind if comprehensive features that you’d get with the big name VoIP services like Vonage, Skype, and Sun Rocket. Most of the larger VoIP providers include lots of extra features at no extra charge that make phone extremely convenient, and those extra features would be difficult to implement in the form of a small free ware program from Google.

Since the larger VoIP providers typically have things like voice mail, call waiting, call forwarding, conference calling, call blocking, caller ID, and call waiting to name only a few; Google Talk really wouldn’t be much of a threat to them. Some of the bigger VoIP services also even offer on the fly language translation which makes it easier to communicate with people in other parts of the world.

For these reasons it’s really unlikely that Google Talk would be a threat to other VoIP service providers. But Google also has a lot of unused bandwidth at its disposal and some of the most innovative minds in Silicon Valley. Therefore, if Google decided to launch a full blown VoIP service, the existing services would then be seriously threatened.

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