Google dives deeper into networking

No longer content with indexing billions of items on the Web, Google during the past year or so has been expanding its offerings into areas such as desktop search, 3-D mapping and location-aware services.

And last week it took a step into the world of telephony services, launching its Google Talk instant messaging and VoIP chat service. This latest move is just part of the company's expansion into the corporate computing realm.

Earlier this summer, Google made a strategic investment in broadband-over-powerline service provider Current Communications Group, and rumors are circulating that it aims to construct a nationwide fiber-optic network that, among other things, could support free Wi-Fi access for all.

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No longer content with indexing billions of items on the Web, Google during the past year or so has been expanding its offerings into areas such as desktop search, 3-D mapping and location-aware services.

And last week it took a step into the world of telephony services, launching its Google Talk instant messaging and VoIP chat service. This latest move is just part of the company's expansion into the corporate computing realm.

Earlier this summer, Google made a strategic investment in broadband-over-powerline service provider Current Communications Group, and rumors are circulating that it aims to construct a nationwide fiber-optic network that, among other things, could support free Wi-Fi access for all.

A Google spokeswoman would not comment on the company's plans, except to say that it is "continually exploring opportunities to expand our offerings."

"We are continually developing new technologies to help users find and access the information they need. We release all of our products and services with our users in mind, and we remain focused on our company mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," she says.

IT managers should be watching because "Google is coming," says Rob Enderle, of the Enderle Group. "Google really wants to be the center of communications. It has grasped that as its initiative. . . . At some point they'll be a company [IT managers] will want to consider."

Google seems to be primed for change. Earlier this month, it announced it was filing for a second public offering, which, with its stock price now hovering around $280, could raise about $4 billion. Google hasn't said what it plans to do with the money. Analysts speculate that the company, which already has deep pockets - some $2.9 billion in cash on hand, likely will use the money to fund acquisitions. The idea would be to shore up its position as it takes on industry heavyweights Microsoft and Yahoo! on the Web portal and software side, as well as prepare for a possible battle with telecom service providers such as SBC and Comcast.

Preparing for battle

"Google is trying to build up its war chest because it realizes it's going to war with some pretty big players," Enderle says. "It's going to be rolling against some heavy hitters already in the communications space, many of them old legacy companies like SBC. . . . So they are moving to build that war chest before they fully engage in battle."

The company's release of Google Talk last week illustrates the firm's grander vision. Google Talk is an IM and VoIP-based chat service that pits Google deeper into competition with Web portal giants AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo!

"I don't want to call it exactly defense, but they are playing catch-up with their competitors who have this functionality, and they now as a media company or portal or however you want to characterize them really needed to have this piece to round out their product suite," says Greg Sterling, an analyst at The Kelsey Group.

Google says it hopes to differentiate itself from competitors by forgoing proprietary code for open IM protocols. Google is latching on to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP ), an open standard for IM and presence developed by the Jabbar Software Foundation. It is supported by Jabber Open Source; Jabber, Inc.; iChat and several other programs.

By using an open standard, Google will have an instant community of users that adopters of Google Talk can add to their buddy lists.

"Their strategy of picking the XMPP protocol and rallying all the troops that are not on the proprietary networks [such as AOL, Yahoo and MSN] will generate a Google IM community in a hurry," says Ed Marshall, head of the global threat center at IMlogic, which develops security and management gateways to help corporate administrators control consumer IM traffic on their networks. "It will give them a kick-start to the number of people on their network."