Google Talk to herald major market shift?(Global)

Google's new service--Google Talk--is a further addition to the industry's list of brand-name VoIP and IM offers. Thanks to Google's marketing and financial clout it has sent shivers through the market.

In the first phase, the voice service will be limited to a closed group, not only because users require either a 'Gmail' account or a US mobile number to register, but also because Google Talk is not yet fully interoperable with mainstream VoIP services. Most of these use session initiation protocol (SIP) in their software. (SIP is used to set up and 'tear down' interactive multimedia sessions.)

Google has told analysts that it will support SIP in 'a future release'. The company has also stated 'it is committed to working with other service providers to create a federation model'. Current projects include working with EarthLink to 'federate' the Vling communications service (a SIP-based online VoIP service) and with Sipphone to do the same for the Gizmo Project, another SIP-based offer.

The IM feature is already more accessible, though still niche. The protocol used here (the Jabber/XMPP) "is one of several proposed methods for authentication, presence and messaging, and so Google Talk can interwork with other systems that use the same protocol," says Mark Main, an analyst with Ovum. "However, none of the major internet-based IM/messaging systems such as AOL/AIM, Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger support interoperation, because it isn't in their interest to do so--they all want the largest number of users, and interoperability would simply lead to a high level of churn."

As Main's remarks suggests, Google is already considered a competitor to the main portals. However, the move into voice will also bring conflict with telecom operators--particularly once Google Talk has SIP. "[SIP] would mean that Google could branch out into more mainstream voice services by following the same path as Vonage and the myriad of VoIP providers that use voice over broadband phone adapters," says Main. "The phone service functionality of these adapters is increasingly integrated into consumer broadband routers--so in future customers could choose a Google phone service and use it with standard PSTN handsets."

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