GooglePhone 2
Google's assault on Skype continued today with the launch of an extension to the Google voice and video chat facility available through Gmail or iGoogle.
Previously it was equivalent to the original Skype - if someone else you know had their Gmail open you could IM, call or video-call them. But what money Skype makes is from ‘Skype out' where people pay Skype for credits to call regular phones.
With this move, Google has moves to get into this premium end of the consumer Internet telephony market. The competitive advantage it has over Skype is that many people are going to log in to Google regardless, so it will be more convenient to just stick with Google rather than open up Skype too.
Unfortunately, like Google Voice, this facility is restricted to the US and Canada for now, but the table comparing this new Google product to a ‘leading Internet telephony provider' (now who could that be?) makes interesting reading.
Here are a piccie and a vid from the Google blog.
