Google Talk?
There are rumors that Google is going to release an IM client as soon as tomorrow. By itself this is interesting news, but not necessarily a breakthrough idea nor a high-impact event. We all know that AOL is king in the IM world and it is difficult to woo users over to a new system if all of their friends are still using AIM or MSN or Yahoo, etc. However, I think the most significant tidbit of information in this story is that there is speculation that the alleged Google Talk client will make use of the Jabber protocol.
For those who are unaware, Jabber is an open source instant messaging protocol that has been around for quite some time now. In my opinion, it would be fantastic if it was somehow established as the de facto standard for the instant messaging industry and this is why:
- The Jabber protocol itself is open source so it is and always will remain free.
- Jabber works very similar to email and has a hierarchical communication and administration mechanism. For example, suppose there are two users that want to communicate using Jabber. Each Jabber user must be registered with an active Jabber server (much like an email server) and Jabber usernames look just like email addresses. Suppose we have the Jabber servers doe.com and major.com running. User john@doe.com can contact mary@major.com using any Jabber enabled client. Much like the email system, messages are handled by the corresponding servers and then instantly displayed in the clients’ IM windows.
- Because Jabber has an open architecture, you are not locked into one IM client or one IM administrator or “the IM system that all your friends use.” There are many Jabber-enabled clients out there and they are all capable of communicating with one another.
If the rumors about Google Talk are in fact true, then we might have a big enough natural marketing engine to convert users to the Jabber-enabled client and finally establish instant messaging as the open and completely inter-operable system that it should have been all along.
