Google to Deliver Instant Messages

The service may start as early as Wednesday, sources say. The firm will face tough rivals

SAN FRANCISCO — Watchers of Google Inc. soon will have something new to chat about — and with.

Continuing its rapid expansion into new product categories, the Internet search giant plans to launch an instant messaging program called Google Talk as early as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the service.The new service follows by just a few days the introduction of Google Sidebar, which pulls news stories, photographs, weather updates, stock quotes and other features onto a user's computer without opening a Web browser.

With all the new services, Google now competes with Internet portals such as Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s America Online squarely on their turf, even as those companies encroach onto Google's with updated search engines.

Google has been playing catch-up with many products, such as e-mail, a personalized home page at Google.com and online maps. The goal is to get consumers to stay longer, rather than simply search for websites and then click away.

Compiling a list of buddies to chat with through instant messaging provides the kind of "stickiness" these companies covet.

"Like any big company, they've got a brand name, and they've got to keep extending it," said John Tinker, an analyst at Think Equity Partners who had not seen Google Talk.

"Because the reality is, there's not a whole lot of difference between their search [engine] and anyone else's."

According to a person who has seen the service, Google plans to let users chat using more than just their keyboards. Like similar programs from competitors, Google Talk also will let computer users with a headset have voice conversations with other computer users with headsets, this person said.

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This was mention on Oct 21 2004 in webproworld