Google makes IM/VoIP play

...strong marks for sound quality but said it lacked video chat, which Yahoo offers, and complained that it doesn't index and make searchable text chats as Google Desktop does for AOL and MSN Messenger chats.

"That had better change — and soon — if Google is serious about winning people over. Or at least winning me," Sullivan wrote in an article on Search Engine Watch.

"Unlike some past Google products, like Google Maps or Gmail, Google Talk does not seem to 'pull a Google' as I like to call in rewriting what we expect from an application or service," he wrote. "No 'wow' feature jumps out at me or Gary Price, Search Engine Watch's news editor who worked with me on the story."

AOL leads the pack in instant messaging, with about 41.6 million users, followed by about 19 million using Yahoo Messenger and 14 million using MSN Messenger, according to ComScore Media Metrix.

"Unless the Google tool can talk to AOL, it's going to be a pain" for users, Sullivan added.

Both AIM and MSN Messenger enable voice chat. And earlier this month, Yahoo began allowing its IM users to make phone calls through the service, in what many see as a challenge to popular VoIP provider Skype.

David Card, an analyst at Jupiter Research, said he understood the business reasons behind Google wanting to offer instant messaging, but questioned what the search company could add to the technology that would entice enough users to the service to make it competitive.

"I'm puzzled to imagine what is going to be the unique Google-ness of an instant-messaging product," he said. "I don't think the world needs another one."

John Battelle, who wrote a book on Web search that will be published in September, said he believes IM is a "no brainer". "IM ties folks to a platform, and that's what Google is building with Desktop et al. VoIP is another possibility," he wrote in his blog.

Other bloggers also were waiting to see what Google's twist would be on instant messaging.

"Hmmm...Google Talk; VoIP and IM. Since Yahoo and Skype also offer similar offerings I'm wondering what Google may do to spice up Google Talk a bit. You know, something that will Google-fy it," wrote Search Engine Journal editor Loren Baker. "Perhaps serving search results and Web clips related to conversations? AdSense ads relevant to conversations which pick up the bill for VoIP to phone calls? Photo sharing and file sharing via the already available Google-owned Hello messaging program? ...Google, time to speak up; the world is listening."

Google declined to comment. (Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.)