In it"s ever increasing endeavors to
lure users to its services, search engine giant Google Inc. has announced plans
to join its popular Gmail e-mail service with its Google Talk Instant Messaging
service. By combining services Gmail users will be able to see a list of their
Google Talk contacts and will be able to tell whether a contact is available
for Instant Messaging. Google hopes that by combining services it will make it
easier for users to stay in contact and will draw more users to both its Gmail
and Google Talk services.
Of course
the hopes for Google are that by increasing the user base of these services it
will also increase its income from advertising, from which it profited $1.5
billion on sales of $6.1 billion in 2005. All in all, it"s a win-win situation,
or as close as you can get to one in this day and age. The user gets increased
functionality of free services and the draw to invite their friends and family
members to use the services, and Google in return gets more ads displayed which
of course equals increased revenues. Page ads I can deal with, as long as they
don"t resort to pop-up/under ads, I won"t complain.
According to google vice president of product management Salar
Kamangar, the new integration of Google Talk features will begin
showing up in Gmail accounts on Tuesday and should be available to all
Gmail users within the next few
weeks.