Google Talk
polycounter lvl 19
http://www.google.com/talk/
Just noticed this was out. It's real beta at the moment. Curious to see what they're going to do to set it apart from MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, etc.
Just noticed this was out. It's real beta at the moment. Curious to see what they're going to do to set it apart from MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, etc.
Replies
ridiculous how much fuss google maps got, especially when you think about the fact that the software to do it was already in daily use by the company they bought out for over a decade.
something that's ticking me off right now about most of these companies, is the fact that microsoft have started copying them.
Explorer 7 is a duplicate of FireFox
MSN Search is a duplicate of Google
kinda frustrating, because the reason I prefer to use the Microsoft products is thier user interfaces and systems.
I don't use MSN Search because it's the 'top-ranking search engine with some super advanced indexing system'... I used it because I could actually find what I was looking for.
Now I have to rely on other people to find things for me. It's all getting pretty annoying and pathetic on the whole.
I mean take Talk for example. The main selling point is that it has VoIP... which seems great only Skype and Lycos provide this with free access to calling telephone lines.
MSN and Yahoo! provide very similar Telephone and Text Services, but unfortunately currently only with certain networks.
So really Talk looks and feels much like MSN Messenger 2.0 right now. Hardly a fantastic step forward in innovation, yet somehow several forums I'm a member on people are raving about how this is awesome and new. (in-fact I was given a 24hour ban from one because I didn't agree with the moderator who posted the news)
It's all as silly as the whole G-Mail system as well. Like the main selling point of that was you got 2GB of space per e-mail.. great, only when the heck will anyone here use that much space? I use my e-mail (which is on a personal server so can hold something like 250GB anyways but not the point) for sending messages. Sometimes I attach some code, models, images, etc. Nothing ever really goes above 10MB; if it does then often it's much better to send a DVD/CD-RW with the media via post .. or upload it to an FTP.
Then there was the whole 'invite only deal', only everyone had like 50 invites each week or something stupid so your basically giving them away to get new people.
(So many friends tried to get me to get a gmail account, never got one though.. tested Talk on my brothers.)
The way I see everything aside from Google being a fairly nice alternative search system; on the whole everything else is smoke&mirror advertisement of something the market already has just to gain that whole momentum. I doubt the fact of the press of Microsoft seeing them as a threat has hurt thier reputation either. Given how much everyone 'loves' Microsoft.
I find that amusing in itself, given everyone hates Microsoft because they're greedy... yet the entire reason the google company came to be is because the guys who run it want to become billionaires. To me I don't see a difference.
Microsoft provide a huge array of survices for free while providing a number of essential things at a cost. Google provide everything for 'free' yet you have to put up with adverts everywhere. Given we're in period where we're trying desperately as possible to use browsers capable of disabling as much advertisments as possible, seems a little backward to be actively supporting a company who's revenue is entirely provided by actually forcing more and more adverts online.
Yes, lets all marvel at the people who invented the context advert system called 'AdSense' while bitching that all websites seem to do nowadays is try to sell us crap we don't want. Makes perfect sense to me.
You dislike Google for providing free services with ads, seemingly forgetting that google has no source of revenue besides ads and wouldn't exist without them, yet don't seem to mind in the least that Microsoft stuffs it's free services with several times as many ads in more obtrusive places and formats even though they could easily afford to run those services without using any ads at all.
People who dislike Microsoft for "being greedy" don't know what they're talking about, which is quite similar to people who dislike Google for "[wanting] to become billionaires" (read: running a company).
Let's also completely neglect to mention the fact that the entire point of AdSense is to at least attempt to advertise relevant products, seeing as advertisments are going to be there whether Google exists or not.
It's all as silly as dismissing the main selling point of GMail simply because you have no use for it. Because everyone is the same as you, right? And it's not like GMail is streamlined and reliable or anything like that.
I have no fondness for Google Talk as I find it useless without the ability to talk to other user bases (MSN). However, your dislike for Google is completely illogical leading me to believe that the only reason you have it is because Google's products conflicts with your existing loyalties to Microsoft (further reinforced by your post).
So unless you have some sort of arguement to present based on some form of logical reasoning, I'd say you fall into the category commonly known across the internet as "fanboy".
PWNED
If you handed me a chocolate bar laced with cyanide I'd refuse but it wouldn't stop me from complaining about how you tried to poison me.
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That cyanide part was so relevant I don't even know what to say
Clearly Google is poisoning the minds of us and our children
DAMN THEM AND THEIR TERRORIST WAYS!
You dislike Google for providing free services with ads, seemingly forgetting that google has no source of revenue besides ads and wouldn't exist without them, yet don't seem to mind in the least that Microsoft stuffs it's free services with several times as many ads in more obtrusive places and formats even though they could easily afford to run those services without using any ads at all.
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No, that isn't what my post is about at all.
What I'm getting sick of isn't how Google run thier business; I don't use thier stuff, I don't give a flying monkey.
What pisses me off is how everyone looks at them as something better than the Microsoft solution... because they're Google. Not because they are providing a better service but because they are who they are. Under the same guise Microsoft is also being punished constantly by the consumer for who they are.
From where I'm sitting BOTH companies are doing the exact same thing. Providing as many free services to the consumer as possible.
So what makes Google better than Microsoft?
Why are people so hung up on using Google's software over the competitions despite the fact that more often than not, it's a poor replica of something already on the market in daily use?
Microsoft are evil because they're trying to make money!
Yet Google are doing the exact same.
Microsoft are evil because they're making sure that thier stuff only works with thier other stuff!
Even if this was true :coughmsdncough:, I don't see how this differs from Google.
So many complaints people have about Microsoft can be just as easily be applied to Google that can seem to do no wrong.
And honestly until recently while it got on my nerves constantly hearing from people 'oh you should use google .. because it's better'; it wasn't until Microsoft also really started paying attention to this that this really started to affect me as a user.
MSN Search now works like Google. Did the users ASK Microsoft to do this? Is MSN Search any more popular now? Can you actually find everything you could before on it now and more?
No Microsoft did this because of the nature of the Google fans. See what's perhaps the most frustrating part of this and why for one Microsoft are taking something so personally, is because Google are Ex-Softies. It's basically an entire company of "who's who" in the "Who hates Microsoft the most" list.
And ya know what, this issue is now spilling into the user-space. I don't use MSN Search, or Messenger because they're "simply the best thing on the market used by the most people"... If I wanted the best I'd use Yahoo! if I wanted the largest population I'd use AIM/AOL.
But I don't use those, I use what I enjoy using. Yet my personal user experience is being tainted because of these other companies are making Microsoft feel all threatened.
Yes I'm a fan of Microsoft Software...perhaps because strangely enough I like using something I can easily get to grips with quickly. If Google were putting out innovative new products; if thier business plan was about providing users with the best possible service with the least cost to them; if they were making stable software that provided something new. Then fine.
But they're not. Nothing new, nothing innovative, nothing that works better. They're providing services specifically to go up against Microsft.
That's how they're getting thier business too. In that open-day webcast thing I never once heard them mention "our search engine is an improvement over Yahoo!, Alta-Vista and MSN becuase of the large node library we have." No everytime they made a comment about competitor products it was a Microsoft brand-name used.
Constantly whenever Microsoft are releasing something new, like the Desktop Search... Google are there releasing the same damn thing getting it out quicker. They're no targeting Yahoo! who is actually thier largest competitor in market terms; they're playing on the fact that people hate Microsoft.
That just pisses me off. What gets me about this damn messenger is the build-up. Like it's something amazing and novel when it's not... it's about 5years behind the technology curve.
"well it has VoIP!", yeah good for you... now find me a Messenger that DOESN'T!
Gmail? To me its the same as Hotmail with a bigger in box, and more importantly, its easy to find your stuff. You email is searchable. I don't need to use it, because I have my own email mailboxes. However, Mail on OS X is better than Outlook, becuase of its superb search features. So the Gmail searching would be a powerful selling point to me if I were to choose a webmail system.
Whats better, Microsoft Messenger (MSN is dead!) or Google talk? Messenger by miles. But then again version 8 will be out later this year, and it doesnt support VoIP. It doesn't currently talk to other messenger clients. Version 1 Beta of Google talk does, but it's limited in other areas the MSN excels in. I don't use VoIP, but I'd like to talk to other messenger services.