Google bought another company last week. Not DoubleClick, but a Stockholm-based desktop video conferencing outfit called Marratech. Google says it plans just to use the technology internally, but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how things could play out if Google decides to productize it. With widely deployed Jabber-based VoIM (Google Talk), tons of bandwidth, and huge data centers, Google desktop conferencing could be a slam-dunk right in the face of Cisco/WebEx. The irony here is that Marratech says it would be cheaper to buy its server software than pay WebEx's per-minute charges. But it's a world turned upside down when when Google talks about selling software and a competitor provides software as a service.
For more about the Marratech acquisition:
- read this article [1] from InfoWorld
Related Articles:
Is Google lusting after voice? Report [2]
Google and eBay ally on VoIP. Report [3]
Google and Samsung to create Google Phone? Report [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/20/HNgooglevideoconferencing_1.html
[2] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/is-google-lusting-after-voice/2007-02-02
[3] http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/google-and-ebay-ally-on-voip/2006-08-29
[4] http://www.dailytechrag.com/story/google-and-samsung-to-create-google-phone/2007-01-18