Google Launches Google Talk Beta

Posted on August 24, 2005

Google has launched a new instant messanger and internet phone tool called Google Talk. The tool will compete with similar instant messenger (IM) products from AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo. Google Talk's web phone tool will compete with products like Skype -- although Skype has the advantage because it can call land line phones and Google Talk cannot.

Update: Looks like Skype doesn't want Google's launch to steal its thunder. ZDNet reports that Skype is launching IM developer tools to promote its instant messenging software.

The company on Wednesday unleashed its SkypeWeb and SkypeNet developer tools. By doing so, the company says, it's opening up its platform to people who wants to integrate Skype Instant Messaging -- a lesser-known feature of Skype -- into their applications.
"Skype to wants to embrace the rest of Internet," Skype co-founder Janus Friis said during a recent interview.
Skype IM is given away free, along with the company's Net phone software, to people who register with the company. The company says that it has 51 million registered users but did not provide an estimate of how many of those people use the IM service. Skype says, however, that it can be a significant threat to instant-messaging giants America Online, MSN and Yahoo. Representatives of AOL and MSN did not immediately respond to requests for comment.