At Last: Google Talks About Google Talk

Google's gone and done it. As expected, it officially launched (as of an hour or so ago) it's own instant messaging and VoIP application called—what else?-- Google Talk.

(To download, go to this Google site.)

Google Talk alone would make this a big week for real-time collaboration, but wait, there's more! Oracle, perhaps not coincidentally, announced its own IM-enabled Collaboration Suite on Monday. While Google however, is shooting for ubiquity—its service will be available to any and all gmail users, and Google is opening the floodgates for them, Oracle is pitching a closed system of IM for security focused business users. While Oracle will "move aggressively to integrate realtime capability into our own apps and make APIs available for partners [to do so], we do not have federated IM," says Bob Shimp, vice president of technology marketing for the Redwood Shores, Calif. database colossus. "We firmly believe you need a separate channel from any public IM system that enables IT departments to ensure they not only record but audit IM as mandated [by new regulations.' Federated systems open up a gigantic security hole."

Microsoft, by contrast, offers interop between its Live Communications Server 2003 and the public IM clouds via a gateway.

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Nothing demonstrates the contention between the network effect—as in the more people on the system, the better—and the need for controlled, secure systems-- than instant messaging. If you can only chat with people authorized by the IT police, how useful is IM, really?

As addicted reporters can attest, the appeal of buddy lists is the ability to see who's online and available immediately. Says one: "If I can't ping my sources and pals outside the company, what good is it?"

Says another: "The day my company starts archiving and monitoring my IM is the day I stop using it."

Lotus Notes Guru—and now Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie —outlined the strife that will result as a new generation of Web-savvy PC users chafe under IT-imposed constraints.

This will be an interesting story line to follow. For more chatter on Google Talk, see Slashdot.