Google Talk Is Impressive

After downloading the application and installing it (for Windows only at the moment), I chatted with Gmail contacts list (or manually input their email addresses) to invite your friends to connect. You do need a Gmail account in order to use Skype, as I did. But making such a comparison is an apples-and-oranges one. From the user perspective, both do the same thing - enable you to connect via the net with anyone else running the desktop application and have voice conversations and text chats for free, wherever in the world you happen to be. From this user perspective, that's where the similarities end. Skype enables you to make phone calls to normal phone numbers. You can't do that with Google Talk. Skype has the ability to receive calls from normal phones. You can't do that with Google Talk. Skype has voicemail and conference calling ability. Google Talk doesn't. Skype computer-to-computer calls are encrypted. Google Talk calls aren't. And Skype has many third-party application plugins. Not yet any for Google Talk. This is by no means a criticism of Google Talk which has only just launched (in beta, at that). From my simple experience this morning, it is very good indeed as a free phone and text messaging system, as good as Skype is in that regard. But a Skype killer it is not. Not yet anyway. The Skype's the Limit - Niklas Zennstrm and Janus Friis have plans to rewire the planet - wirelessly - with Skype (article in Constantin Basturea) NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at NevilleHobson.com