Google Voice

What was the Skype's killer feature that made it super-popular? Video calling. And on what Skype is making money? On IP-telephony. Google wasn't able to repeat the same trick with GTalk/GMail/Google Voice. Because people got used to Skype already. But maybe Google will succeed with the rapidly growing group video chat Google Hangouts. That's what Google is going to do - integrate Hangouts with IP-telephony. The new tool in Google Hangouts already allows to call landlines and mobile phones and connect people that are not currently by a computer to the online meeting. This is especially important for business meetings when you need to connect client or partner to your meeting. However, meanwhile these external calls work only in the United States and Canada (and work for free). But it's no doubt that soon it will become available in other countries via paid Google Voice calls.

VoIP-service in GMail, which was earlier available only in the U.S. and Canada, has appeared in the user accounts in almost all countries of the world - in 38 languages. Here is the list of countries where Gmail Call Phone is NOT currently available: Argentina, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iran , Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Peru, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Viet Nam. With this global intervention, Google has lowered its VoIP rates, making them slightly cheaper than rates of its new main rival - Skype. For example, a call to France costs 8 cents (vs. 16.9 cents in Skype), to USA - 1 (vs. 1.9). As before GMail Call Phone requires quick browser plug-in installation - the same plug-in that is used for video calling in GMail.

Sold out to Microsoft, Skype on the one hand secured itself the bright future in the stable Microsoft empire, and on the other hand - killed its bright future as a global public communications service. No one ever will look at Skype, as at the independent service that suits everyone and works everywhere. This niche is now empty and someone has to take it. Besides, we expect that in the near future the communication services, owned by Microsoft rivals, will also make the considerable steps forward in order to keep the balance of power. Here are 5 products that (we think) will compete with Microsoft Skype:

As promised, Google has added the consumer services (that were previously only available for individual users) to the Google Apps suite. Last week they added Google Voice (for US and Canada users only) and today - allowed to add any of 60 Google services. Account administrator can select which services to add and which - not. Moreover, the administrator can define which users or groups will have access to each service. For example, for marketing staff he can add Adwords (for advertising), Google Analytics (for monitoring site stats), Blogger and YouTube (for corporate blog and video blog), and for IT professionals - Google App Engine (for developing business applications). Also potentially useful for business may be Google Reader (as an enterprise RSS reader) and Picasa (for intranet galleries). The opportunity to add new services is also available in the free version of Google Apps.

Few days ago the analytical company Frost & Sullivan stated that Google will soon storm the unified communications market, which is dominated by Cisco, Avaya and Microsoft. After all, Google has GMail, Google Voice, GTalk, Buzz, Gizmo5, Android, GISP and it remains just to combine all these technologies into single offering. And Google has decided to immediately confirm this forecast - from today GMail allows you to make and receive phone calls (thanks to the integration with Google Voice and Gizmo5). Meanwhile the VoIP service in GMail is available only in US.

As you know, Google services are popular both for business and for personal use. That is why, many users often have a need to switch from working to personal account (for example, to check mail). This required multiple logout/login procedures. But now this process will be much more easier - Google is rolling out multi-account sign-in that allows to switch between accounts using the top menu. You can activate this feature and add accounts on this page. However, switching between accounts will work not for all services - only for GMail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, Google Sites, Google Voice, App Engine and Google Code. In addition, those who activate multi-account sign-in - would have to to give up the offline features in Gmail and Calendar. Recall that soon another related problem will be solved soon - some personal services (Google Reader, Blogger, Youtube ...) will become available in Google Apps accounts.

Video chat in GTalk (or more exactly, in GMail) has appeared more than a year ago. And we were confident that Skype will get the very strong competitor. Nevertheless, Skype's market share hasn't suffered at all. Even GMail users mainly continue using Skype for video calls. Probably, it's a question of a habit and Skype's great popularity. And perhaps, when Google adds calls to regular phones with the help of acquired Gizmo5 - this won't also change anything. Without offering some new revolutionary features, pushing Skype from the market will be extremely difficult. Especially now, when Skype introduced group video calling. However, it seems Google has a new idea. Today the company announced the acquisition of Swedish developer of VoIP and videoconferencing solutions - GIPS. GIPS technologies are used in Yahoo Messenger, Cisco WebEx and Lotus Sametime. And in addition, GIPS has created the best engine for video chat on Android.

The story of Google Voice ban on the iPhone is over. Thanks to Apple and AT&T, Google Voice app hasn't arrived to iPhone yet. That's why Google went the other way and launched the web service, that works in the mobile Safari browser just like the native application. It allows you to make calls via the Web interface, view and listen to the voice mail, send and receive text messages. But the most interesting thing in this story is that the emergence of this application may cause a revolution in the current mobile marketplace. Earlier we wrote about the political games around the HTML5 implementation. And one of the major players in these political games is Apple, the manufacturer of the most popular mobile device, iPhone, which is known for its closeness. No application can get to iPhone unless it's approved by Apple.

Multiple sources (including TechCrunch) say that almost exactly Google has bought  Gizmo5 for $30 millions. If it's true, Skype now will get the very powerful competitor. Interesting, that month ago Skype was going to buy Gizmo5 itself in order to replace the Global Index technology (that was a reason of lawsuit) with Gizmo5 SIP-based platform. But now when Skype has after the Skype settlement, though, Gizmo5’s strategic value to Skype sort of plummeted. But, it turns out, that Gizmo5 has the strategis value to Google. And, really, it ideally fits Google's communication plans. First of all, GTalk can call only between internet users, but can't call PSTN and mobile phones. Gizmo5 will easily provide this opportunity to GTalk users.

Ribbit, owned by BT (British Telecom) announced the new service Ribbit Mobile, that provides personal virtual PBX and can be linked to your existing mobile number. Ribbit Mobile's features are very similar to Google Voice - it can forward incoming calls according to your settings, send/receive sms, voicemail and transcribe voicemail. Unlike Google Voice, that only works with phone-company phones and SIP, Ribbit can also connect to Skype. And its main advantage is Web integration. Ribbit Mobile allows to call and receive calls in the web interface or using the widget. That is what Google Voice can't do.

Skype, that is struggling now against Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has  two backup plans. The first - is to rebuild the back end themselves, and the second - is to acquire some existing technology. It turn out, that Skype moves in both directions. The company is hiring VoIP experts (like crazy) for their internal project, named Gecko. But this project is probably not progressing as quickly as Skype needs it to. Today multiple sources announced that Skype is in negotiations to acquire its little rival Gizmo5, that uses open protocols SIP and Jabber in its p2p VoIP network. The price tag is said to be in the $50 million range.