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Google Becomes a VoIP Provider with Gizmo5 Purchase

Google announced its 4th acquisition of the year with the purchase of Gizmo5. Gizmo5 gives Google the ability to connect VoIP calls from the Internet or from mobile devices, changing the game for Google Voice and Google Wave.

AT&T recently filed a complaint with the FCC charging that Google was violating communications guidelines by blocking phone calls to certain areas. Google’s response was that because Google Voice does not actually provide the backbone that carries the actual calls Google is not subject to those same guidelines. Gizmo5 puts some holes in that defense.

Google Voice has generated a lot of excitement providing a diverse set of advanced voice and messaging capabilities, but without Gizmo5 Google Voice relies entirely on your existing voice services. Google Voice is basically an extended feature pack that you implement with your existing mobile and landline phones.

By purchasing Gizmo5, Google now has its own VoIP capabilities and can beef up Google Voice to compete directly with Skype. The bigger picture, though, is what Gizmo5 provides Google in terms of expanding the unified communications functionality of Google Wave.

I have not been overly impressed with the early release of Google Wave, but the initial demonstration Google used to unveil Google Wave was quite impressive. If Google manages to mature the current Google Wave beta into the Google Wave it displayed for us at Google I/O 2009, and adds in SIP-based VoIP capabilities, Google Wave could be a potent unified communications platform and offer an impressive, cost-effective alternative to existing unified communications systems.

Google Wave Isn’t All Sunshine and Lollipops

OK. I swear that I am not anti-Google or anti-Google Wave, and I promise not to repeatedly bash Google Wave. In all honesty, I couldn’t wait to get my Wave invitation and I am still very excited to jump in and see what its all about. My previous post about being underwhelmed has more to do with what it looks like now during beta testing and not living up to the hype, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t think it will eventually be a very capable product.

That said, there are two sides to the Google Wave coin. Its not all ice cream and rainbows, or sunshine and lollipops. First, the real-time collaboration is a huge benefit and the ability to see others typing as their fingers hit the keys is novel, but do we really need to watch others type…wrong…then backspace….then retype?

Have you ever written a message in anger or frustration? Then you take a step back and a deep breath, re-read it, and decide that there is a more appropriate way to say things so you edit the message before sending it? If you were holding that conversation in a Google Wave the other party would be able to watch as you type what a complete jackass….brain dead moron…..jerk….good person with the right intentions, but poor execution your boss is.

Real-time typing has its drawbacks.

What about the ability to chain and forward a Wave well after the fact? Say you start a Wave with a friend and you are venting between the two of you about a third friend. The Wave evolves and later the third friend is inadvertently added to the Wave. That person can go back to the beginning of the Wave, replay it, comment on it, etc.

Once its a Wave its sort of out of your control and the concept of assuming that everything you type will be shared publicly takes on a whole new meaning.

It will be interesting to see how some of the pitfalls of Google Wave are addressed as development evolves and the fully functional Google Wave eventually hits the Internet.

If you are on Google Wave, you can feel free to connet with me at s3kur3@googlewave.com.

Can Google Voice Crush Skype?

When the economy was booming and things were looking up, eBay decided to diversify by purchasing the online VoIP provider Skype. Times are more troubled now and there have been talks recently that eBay may put Skype back on the market. There are also rumors that the founders of Skype may want to buy their baby back and develop its potential better than they feel eBay has done.

They may want to hurry up with dumping Skype because they are about to face some serious competition from Google Voice. This article details some reasons that Google Voice may beat out Skype head to head such as:

• Routing and forwarding re-defined
• A new definition of ‘call screening’
• On the fly switching
• Read your calls

and…

• The Google god

You can check out How Google Voice Can Kill Skype to get the details behind those bullet points and find out whether Google Voice may signal the end of the Skype era.

Google Ripples Market With Announcement of Wave

At the Google I/O conference Google unveiled a revolutionary new collection of communication and collaboration tools dubbed “Wave”. Wave seems to be a very ambitious project from Google which potentially impacts both the unified communications and collaboration players including Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, IBM, and others, but also provides some potential competition for Microsoft Office as well.

Wave, as it was demoed at Google I/O, is still in the early stages of development. You can watch the demo from Google I/O. It is an hour and twenty minutes long though so clear your calendar and get a pot of coffee going. Techcrunch provides a detailed look at and review of Google Wave.

What do you think? Does Google Wave have what it takes to upset the unified communications industry? What about Microsoft Office Wave 14? Did Google tip their hand early enough for Microsoft developers to jump on some of the Wave innovations and try to incorporate them before the next version of Office is released?

Perzonae Looks to Enter UC Arena

A Dutch startup called Perzonae Unified Communications entered the battle for unified communications market share with the release this week of the public beta version of their service.

The service combines email and instant messaging and Perzonae has plans to incorporate voice capabilities when the official release is made available. According to the article Perzonae feels their product can replace Outlook, Thunderbird, MSN / Live email, Hotmail, Skype, and GMail among others. Seems like a pretty tall order for a startup to take on Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google all before their product is even officially released.

The official release is not expected for another 6 months or so and the beta only runs on Windows XP- so they have some work to do. I don’t think that a company or product like this provides any serious concern to Microsoft or other enterprise-class unified communications providers. It remains to be seen what Perzonae will bring to the table and whether consumers or smaller businesses might be willing to pay Perzonae for services they can currently get for free using Windows Live Messenger or Google’s services such as GMail or Google Talk.

Esnatech Brings UC to Google Applications

The Gmail web-based email client from Google is one of the most popular email clients currently in use. Using a web-based email solution means that a user is never farther from their email than the nearest web browser. That could be at home, at work, at a public library, or even on a mobile phone. Now, the speed and availability of Gmail can also be leveraged as part of a unified communications solution using Esnatech’s Telephony Office-LinX. Office-LinX allows companies to tie their PBX-based and mobile phones in with Google’s applications, including GMail. That same search functionality that lets users find a keyword in an email from 7 months ago will also be able to help users locate voicemails and faxes.

New Internet Tools From Microsoft

Microsoft is taking off the gloves to do battle with Google. They are going head to head on Internet search, Internet advertising, and web browser toolbars. It is hard to imagine Microsoft playing the role of underdog, but in these areas Microsoft is stepping out of their dominant arena and facing Google on Google’s home turf so to speak. Microsoft has unveiled adCenter, their answer to Google AdSense. Like AdSense, adCenter lets companies or individuals market their products and services via the web based on targeted keywords. As an incentive, Microsoft is letting users start adCenter accounts for as little as $5 and they are throwing in an additional free $50 worth of advertising. Sign Up for a Microsoft adCenter Account, and get your message out to a potential 97 million customers. With the browser toolbar, Microsoft has updated the Windows Live Toolbar to version 3.0 and they have added some cool new features. Users can initiate a search from anywhere on the web page, or highlight information on a web page to get more details. You can preview maps, weather, or stock data from the Windows Live Toolbar, and add custom buttons for quick and easy access to the features and information you use most. In addition to the pop-up blocker features found in most browser toolbars, Microsoft also provides extra security to help protect your web surfing from phishing scams or malware attacks. Click here to download Windows Live Toolbar for free.

Google Rumored to Develop 10Gbps Switches

When you’re an Internet juggernaut like Google, you can’t let simple things like the fact that a technology hasn’t been invented get in your way. Google has to transport a lot of data from Point A to Point B within their data center very quickly in order to work all of the magic they do that keeps the users coming back. The mortal world of networking has 1Gbps Ethernet networks, but that is the max for now. IEEE is working on developing both 40Gbps and 100Gbps standards, but it could be years before the standards are ratified and actual, functioning equipment hits the streets. Iconic organizations like Google can’t be sitting around, twiddling their thumbs waiting for standards to be ratified. The rumor is that their is evidence to suggest that Google has developed their own 10Gbps switches in-house for their data centers. Check out this Networkworld.com article for more about the story.

Microsoft Rumored To Buy Blackberry

Actually, the rumor is that Microsoft might be in the market to purchase Canadian-based mobile device manufacturer RIM (Research in Motion), makers of the popular Blackberry communication devices. Microsoft may be feeling some pressure to stake a stronger presence in the mobile device market after their two biggest rivals have entered the fray. Apple recently rolled out the iPhone through AT&T (formerly Cingular), and Google is reportedly seeking to purchase airwave bandwidth and may be announcing a Google-centric mobile device of their own. Microsoft already makes the Windows Mobile operating system, used on a variety of mobile and handheld devices. The purchase, if it happens, would put Microsoft in a position to develop both the hardware and software, and could also allow them to potentially phase out the Blackberry OS, one of the biggest competitors for mobile device operating systems.