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Announced more than a year ago, a Google staffer blogs Google and AOL are still making progress on federating their text instant messaging networks. via Google Operating System.
Moving text across an xmpp gateway is easy. Areas they are sure to work on (or ignore):
- Avatar sharing
- Alias sharing
- Emoticon interop (and the over-the-top extensions)
- Presence sharing
- Privacy policy harmonization
- Dispute resolution policy and procedures
- SPIM (Spam over instant messaging) and SPIT (Spam over Internet telephony) prevention
- Directory lookup and user discovery interop
- Web link integration (can an AIM link launch GTalk, and vice versa)
- Encryption interop
Voice and video interop are likely out of scope in the first stage.
When the first stages of Microsoft+Yahoo! and GTalk+AIM IM interops reach completion, we'll see how important interop is to users. If it is, there will be huge pressure on Skype to open up gateways.
The other point of pressure on Skype to open: success of click-to-Skype advertising. eBay won't want to walk away from sales generated by AIM, GTalk, Yahoo! Messenger, QQ, Live Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Office Communicator users who want to talk to an eBay seller who uses Skype.
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Written by Skype Journal on January 15th, 2007 with no comments.
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With one of the pins on my BlackBerry's USB port unsoldered due to carelessness on my part and in the shop I have been using softphones even more than usual this week.
Over the last few days I have been conducting several conversations over AOL's AIM Phoneline, Yahoo! Voice, Skype, and even my Vonage softphone.
Bug [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and General and yahoo and AOL.
Now here's one of the most practical ideas I have seen in quite awhile- a way to access most of your IMs over your mobile phone. Kind of like a Trillian for cell.
The latest version of Java-enabled EQO Mobile lets you perform IM-related functions, but take lets you take and make calls on your mobile via [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on October 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and General and Providers and Softphones and AOL.
Global IP Sound (GIPS) today announced the availability of version 2.0 of its iSAC codec. iSAC 2.0 is now optimized for use in hardware devices. This solution allows the makers of IP phones, gateways and chipsets to deliver products that offer the same high quality voice experience that users of software-based VoIP softphones have achieves using GIPS' voice platform. (i.e. GoogleTalk, Skype, AOL are all GIPS customers.)
The latest fixed-point version of the GIPS iSAC adaptive VoIP codec, part of the GIPS Soundware voice processing software suite, is designed to deliver wideband quality in both low- and high-bit rate applications. Several IP-chipset manufacturers including Texas Instruments will incorporate GIPS's iSAC 2.0 codec into their VoIP solutions.
"As a leading enabler of wideband telephony solutions, we realize the importance of technologies that facilitate high quality voice communications," said Fred Zimmerman, executive director, VoIP customer premises solutions, Texas Instruments. "The addition of GIPS' wideband codec to our portfolio further enables us to offer our customers VoIP solutions that deliver an unparalleled user experience that surpasses what callers have grown accustomed to with their traditional phone service."
iSAC was previously only available in floating point code for use in softphones and other applications running on PCs and less resource dependent platforms. iSAC 2.0 is optimized to run on chips embedded within VoIP phones and other hardware devices, guaranteeing high voice quality. This release will also be available in a low complexity version to ease the integration in resource intensive devices like mobile phones. In addition, it facilitates the interoperability of IP phones, gateways, and chipsets with the hundreds of millions of iSAC-enabled softphones and Internet-based voice services that are currently deployed through GIPS' major ISP customers such as Yahoo!,
Skype and AOL.
"The market has not only come to appreciate the benefits of wideband telephony, but prefer it over traditional PSTN" said Roar Hagen, chief technology officer, Global IP Sound. "As manufacturers begin to deploy VoIP enabled hardware, users are going to expect the same full, robust sound they are accustomed to from their softphones. GIPS is proud to be able to deliver this high quality audio on all platforms and devices."
The GIPS iSAC technology automatically adjusts transmission rates, supporting real-time multimedia, conferencing, distance learning, and multi-user gaming applications in a VoIP environment. Due to the nature of wideband audio, iSAC can deliver sound quality that exceeds that of PSTN calls by utilizing a greater range of the speech signal. The codec also handles other challenges, including non-speech audio such as music and background noise.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 12th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and VoIP and Google and AOL and gips and google talk.
I totally agree with Andy's assessment that AOL is winding down its TotalTalk VoIP service in favor of AIM PhoneLine. For the record, TotalTalk will be, well, totally gone November 30.Three big reasons why what AOL is doing makes sense to me. First of all, there's the corporate cannibalism issue. As Andy strongly connotes by [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on September 1st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Time Warner Cable and AOL.
Aswath noticed that it appearred AOL was cancelling their TotalTalk service. When you go to
www.totaltalk.com you are greeted with this message:
"We are very sorry to inform you AOL® Enhanced Services ("AOL ES") has decided to discontinue offering the TotalTalk™ service. For this reason, the TotalTalk service will be terminated on or about November 30, 2006."Andy basically says
TotalTalk was killed in favor of AOL's new PhoneLine service.Andy says that TotalTalk was basically AOL VoIP 1.0 which helped give birth to PhoneLine resulting in AOL VoIP 2.0. Some interesting thoughts by Andy you should definitely check out.
The difference between TotalTalk and PhoneLine is that TotalTalk was more of a Vonage-like solution to replace your home phone line (hardware ATA), and
PhoneLine is a 100% software-based (softphone) VoIP solution that supports both outbound and inbound (DID number) dialing. PhoneLine is an interesting product, but it has to battle the "me too" factor with the likes of
Google Talk, Skype, Gizmo, and others. I should point out that AOL TotalTalk was riding on the Level3 network and really didn't add much value or features that you can't get from any of a dozen VoIP providers. AOL was simply lost in the shuffle of the plethora of VoIP providers out there - many of which also ride on Level3 and with the same exact rates.
Ask any of your techie friends if you knew AOL did VoIP. I bet most didn't know. I bet many average people know
Vonage does VoIP but ask about AOL and they would probably say "AOL does VoIP?" Who would have thought that AOL with one of the most well-known brand names would get lost in the VoIP marketing wars?
If AOL wanted to compete with the likes of Vonage, perhaps they should have copied Vonage's marketing model by spending millions of dollars on TV commercials with a catchy tune. Or they could have entered a price war and offered $10/month unlimited VoIP service just to attract customers. Sure they'd probably eat millions of dollars in the first year, but they needed to do something drastic to stand about the "me too! me too!" VoIP service provider crowd.
Who am I kidding? In the end, even if AOL spent millions, the cable and phone companies
are going to win the war against the single play VoIP providers
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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If you haven't already seen it advertised all over the place online, AOL's AIM Pro
text/ VoIP IM client is available for free download. This version,
which is aimed at business professional, is integrated with Microsoft
Outlook, has added security, and has a One-Click WebEx meeting feature
by which you can run presentations and collaborate on documents in
real-time. The latter is basically application and desktop sharing. Of
course, AIM Pro has text-, voice- and video-calling.
I
downloaded a copy to both my desktop and laptop, and tried the voice
calling first. It's hard to tell when you're talking to yourself, but
the pc2pc call quality
for my setup (over wireless router connected to cable Internet) sounded
fine. I don't have two webcams, so I didn't bother with that feature,
but I did try the desktop sharing. It's considerably slow, but it
works. In fact, it shares EVERYTHING on your computer, so you'd better
be working with people you trust. For me, it's great because I work
simultaneously on both computers and was only the other day wishing I
could view my laptop screen from my desktop. Well now I can, and I can
share apps and transfer files without sharing my hard drives or folders
- which possibly opens up my private network to wireless lurkers.
While AOL's been making a play into the VoIP market
for a while, I saw no ability to call-out to PSTN phones. So Skype and
company have nothing to worry about. And AIM does not have an open
interface AFAIK, so companies like Vozin aren't going to be able to
build bridge applications like Talqer,
which gives Google Talk call-out capability.) Also, desktop sharing
isn't a new feature - MSN Messenger had it several years ago, and there
have been other ways to manage desktops remotely since at least 1996,
if not earlier. However, it's all in a nice, free package, withe
recognizable brand name, which will no doubt make a lot of the people
it's intended for (business professionals) comfortable using it,
especially if they for some reason do not want to use MSN.
I
haven't previously used AIM a great deal, I know very little about past
versions. Because of contacts I communicate with, I do occasionally
chat using Gaim or Trillian on my AIM account. But if I can figure out
how to speed up app sharing and get it to use a larger area of my
desktop's screen, I might use it simply for remote access to my laptop.
If you do decide to try Aim Pro 1.1, keep in mind that you need MS
Outlook 2000 and SP 4 (service pack) to utilize the Outlook integration.
Desktop-sharing
speed issues aside, there is a great deal of potential for businesses
to communicate with customers using AIM Pro. For example, Leader's Bank
in Arlington Massachusetts is already using AIM (though not necessarily
Pro 1.1) to let customers communicate with their bank manager.
If a customer has a question about services, etc., text mode is fine.
But if they are having some problems with a web-based service, the
manager can open up application-sharing (without relinquishing control
of the mouse cursor) and walk through the necessary steps. Alternately,
if the customer knows the manager well, they could allow the manager to
control their own desktop, if the situation warrants it.
How AIM's desktop-sharing compares to other IM clients, I don't know, but I'll work on a comparison for the future.
Written by ewriter on August 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Netmeeting and AOL.
George Ou over at ZDNet points out that
AOL AIM PhoneLine is now offering free inbound calling. With Skype offering
free SkypeOut calling,
Globe7 offering pseudo-free PSTN dialing by earning credits watching videos,
Jajah offers free worldwide dialing, and several other VoIP players offering "free" dialing, it will be interesting to see the final shakeout in the VoIP industry - who survives, who gets bought out, and who goes under.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 10th, 2006 with no comments.
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Time Warner has an uncanny ability to pick Internet’s red letter days. Its merger with America Online signaled the beginning of the end for the Internet Boom (or Bubble) 1.0. Today, by deciding to make AOL free, they sent dial-up to its final resting place.
Sure you can buy dial-up connections (and related services) and many will continue to do so, but for all practical matters from this point forward, its broadband or nothing.
Broadband, the platform not the service, is an omnipresent connection that has trained us to become intimate with the Google Search bar, spend hours on MySpace and get our just desserts on You Tube.
By throwing in the towel on its access business, AOL/Time Warner is telling all its $25-a-month paying customers: you can give this money to our competitors such as AT&T or Comcast, just keep using our friendly services. Either this is an incredibly astute strategy or simply the biggest corporate bungle since… well AOL & Time Warner merged.
Dick Parsons’ decision to tear down the (AOL) wall could go either way – just like the fortunes of the opposing super powers on two sides of the Berlin Wall. If online advertising continues to boom, it would be bouquets for Parsons, Jon Miller and AOL’s self proclaimed savior, Jason Calacanis. If the advertising market heads south, the trio would find themselves on the wrong side of the street.
Nevertheless, AOL’s decision is testament to broadband’s disruptive powers, and not even the biggest company with the deepest pockets is immune to it. Why? Because broadband causes behavioral change, and when a company can bottle that behavior change into a business model, it can make a lot of money. Google is a good example.
Thanks to broadband, Google is just a click away. We search, find and consume information; a marked shift from the old days when we went to destination sites and looked for what was available. Is it hard to imagine that in five years from now, most broadband users will expect real listings sans a map, and a video tour of the property. Or that online personals would come with an ability to chat, either via phone, IM or video.
AOL is simply seeing the writing on the wall. And changing … though the jury is still out on whether they can survive the change. Who’s next? Lets just say every Internet company from the pre-broadband era will need to reinvent, and rethink or lose everything. AOL, and a reluctant Time Warner are just the harbinger of the future.
Charts source: eMarketer
Written by Om Malik on August 2nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and Broadband Life and AOL.
Time Warner’s new found love for online video is a laudable attempt by the media giant to cash in on the hot new thing. But scratch the surface, and you find an online video equivalent of Frankenstein. Each division doing its own thing, with its own partner. And this is all within this week. Here is a quick rundown:
- CNN, (that belongs to Time Warner), is working with Blip.TV, which has licensed its software to CNN for getting video news submissions from amateurs.
- AOL has a deal and an investment in Brightcove.
- AOL has its own internal video efforts. Remember they also bought Truveo, which I guess is part of the new video search service, which allows them to sell videos including content from competitors. AOL also has UnCut video which is like CNN Exchange.
- Turner, a division of Time Warner, has invested in Revver.
- Time Warner has also invested in Veoh.
- Sports Illustrated, a magazine owned by Time Inc., the one that puts Time in the TW is working with Yahoo to do a video thing.
Now if that isn’t a bumbling strategy then what is! Why isn’t CNN using Brightcove? Or for that matter some version of UnCut Video. Why isn’t SI working with AOL. What the hell is the strategy here? When will they start selling The Sopranos and Entourage and all other HBO goodness? Okay, time to stop, and let you join in!
PS: Anyone willing to make a graphic of the frankenstein that is Time Warner’ online video strategy.
Disclosure: I am a former Time Warner employee, and currently write a column for Business 2.0, a magazine that is part of Time Inc., a division of Time Warner.
Written by Om Malik on August 1st, 2006 with no comments.
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Online video is the big story today… again. From CNN to AOL to Lulu.TV - everyone is talking about online videos, which begs the question - How many video sharing sites do we need.
We had asked this question nearly a month ago in the pages of Business 2.0 magazine. The frenzy clearly has gone to the next level. Amazon has jumped into the fray. More money is being pumped into the sector. Revvr for instance is getting more cash from Turner and Comcast. You Tube founders dream of an IPO.
All this on a Monday morning, makes one want to scream: Stop the madness!
Forget the video sharing sites for a minute, and instead lets focus on the pro-video content market. That’s essentially television shows and music videos for now, but movies are around the corner.
If you include AOL’s decision to sell videos for $1.99, you can buy this “pro” video content from Google, Amazon, AOL, Guba, FOX, and Apple along with scores of other sites. This content is mostly for PC viewing, though it will work on portable devices, such as iPod and Sony PSP.
This is reminiscent of the digital music market, which is chockfull of players with marginal market share. Apple’s iPod/iTunes dominates the market because it provides a stress free (some call it integrated) experience for the end user.
One stop shopping is a powerful concept, and as we see more and more “online video sales outlets” pop up, there is more than likely chance that consumers are simply going to gravitate to a stress free experience. This is precisely what Apple wants, sort of: now that you have tried the rest, how about just sticking to the best.
And as for the amateur video sharing sites… you don’t really need it spelled out.
Written by Om Malik on July 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and Apple and AOL and Online Video and YouTube.
Netscape has gotten mixed reviews for its recent Digg-style remake. The New York Times adds a story this morning about a petition from Netscape users to bring back the old site. We did a quick check and got traffic data update from Hitwise.
Hitwise says the Netscape site has seen a 17% increase from the week ending June 24 to the week ending July 15th. Given, that might largely come from the site’s recent media attention, but, hey, at least they’re getting attention, which is more than the Netscape brand had before.
We’ll check back on the data in a few weeks and see if the site is still growing. What do you think of Netscape’s new site?
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 17th, 2006 with no comments.
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Yesterday,
Covad unveiled that customers using its PBXi and PBXi Plus business-class Voice over IP (VoIP) offerings will now have unlimited domestic monthly minutes. I wanted to blog about this yesterday, but wanted more information. I asked
Covad more specifics about their pricing plan via email and they wanted to schedule a conference call to discuss, but I'm pretty busy this week, so I'll just tell you what I do know.
First, technically it's not truly "unlimited" since it is capped at 101,000 minutes per site per month. That equates to about 56 hours per day of talk time. Assuming 50 employees with an average talk-time of 1 hour per day, you'll be under the quota with 50 hours total talk time (50 employees x 1 hr).
However, if you are a 50-seat call center with agents that speak for the full shift (8 hours) then you'll be way over - 50 agents x 8 hrs talk time = 400hrs/day total talk time. Of course, no agent speaks on the phone for the entire work shift, but you get the idea. This solution is more suited for the average SMB with low to moderate talk times. Of course, even if you do go over the allotted minutes, I'm sure Covad's 'overage VoIP minutes' is price competitive, unlike cellular companies that rape you when you go over your minutes.
I like the idea of "unlimited" VoIP plans for business, since in addition to cost savings it gives businesses a "fixed cost" for their telecom expenses. This is is great for budgetary planning for one of the largest "unknown" expenses for businesses, which varies from month-to-month.
Covad may indeed be the first to offer "unlimited" VoIP for businesses modelled after all the popular unlimited residential VoIP plans. Of course, with
AOL giving away free inbound minutes + phone number,
'Skype' giving away free U.S. & Canada calling, you have to wonder how soon will it be when
all voice is free?
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on May 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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As I have already noted in a previous post, I have received a Prospectus for the sale of Vonage stock as part of its Vonage Share Customer Directed Program. The Prospectus is dated May 5. I have read the Prospectus, and have noted what Vonage says about its competitors. Since this information [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on May 8th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and Skype and General and Providers and trends and CallVantage and Google and yahoo and Verizon VoiceWing and Comcast and AOL and SBC-AT&T and Cingular.
AOL is offering a new service for users of its instant messaging client that would allow them to receive incoming telephone calls. Dubbed Phoneline, this feature provides phone number to subscribers free of charge. A pay version is being offered which would allow unlimited calls to states and thirty countries worldwide for $14.95 per month.
It is expected to compete with Skype which is offering similar services through its desktop client but Skype users are required to pay an additional fee for receiving a phone number for their account. AOL is also planning to give a fight to MSN Spaces and MySpace with the launch of AIM pages which is a social networking service that alerts the user’s buddies through the AIM client when profiles are updated
via betanews
Written by gautam.chabbra on May 6th, 2006 with no comments.
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On Wednesday, Verizon announced that it would lower the cost of its VoiceWing service from $34.95 a month to $24.95 a month. That's a tad cheaper than Vonage's most comparable, $24.99 plan. But unlike Vonage VoiceWing's activation will be free.Then just yesterday, AOL said it would launch AIM Phoneline, a free service that will let [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on May 5th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vonage and News and General and Verizon VoiceWing and AOL.
AOL has declared its intentions to directly compete with in the British broadband market. It will be offering an in house broadband internet service rather than reselling BT offering. It has plans to install equipment in 300 local exchanges throughout U.K. This will enable the company to access 20 % of the country’s population with the new service. If the demand exceeds the expectations it will further invest £70 million for a thousand more exchanges. This move by AOL will further increase the level of competition for high speed internet access across U.K. and ensure competitive pricing for the consumers.
via [TeleClick]
Written by gautam.chabbra on January 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Smith on VoIP asks "
Is 'Vonage' the new AOL?" by putting into context my
Vonage promotion with Amazon post where a coworker of mine received a
Vonage flyer along with Smith on VoIP receiving a Vonage flyer in his gas bill and his SEAR's bill. He jokes how he can't seem to escape the Vonage marketing onslaught and he is reminded of AOL's marketing onslaught by mailing millions of AOL software CDs to just about every single American household.
In my
Vonage Amazon post, I wrote:
Wouldn't Vonage would be better off doing local mailings to target a broader audience? There is a huge demographic of broadband users that only use the Internet for email -- for staying in touch with friends/family and only some occasional surfing. Many parents, or those >45 years old fall into this category. A banner ad won't work on these people, since they don't surf enough, nor are they tech-savvy enough to realize the savings VoIP could bring them. So wouldn't it make sense to send a paper flyer to these folks that explains in layman terms how Vonage works and how much money could be saved? For these types of folks, I think you can do this with much more effectiveness using a paper promo flyer than a banner ad, especially considering web surfers are 1-click away from leaving a site.
Perhaps Vonage took my advice and instead of just targetting the tech-savvy Amazon.com demographic, Vonage is now targetting a much wider audience. Great, now they can pay me my $10,000 consulting fee.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on January 1st, 1970 with no comments.
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Remember my
in-depth overview of EQO Communications and their mobile-to-VoIP (Skype), mobile-to-IM (GoogleTalk, AOL, Skype, etc.) and mobile-to-social communities software?
Well, I had word last week that tomorrow
EQO Communications will announce support for RIM Blackberry and Windows Mobile powered devices. With this latest release, Blackberry and Windows Mobile users will be able to access EQO Mobile, a platform that enables VoIP calling and instant messenger services (including AOL AIM, ICQ, GoogleTalk, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo! and Skype) on mobile devices.
According to EQO, the addition of handsets such as the Blackberry Pearl and Treo 700w brings the number of EQO-supported handsets to more than 400 mobile devices, including Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Palm, LG, Panasonic, Phillips, Siemens, Sanyo, Sharp and Samsung.
Although I already covered EQO extensively in a
prior post, essentially EQO gives you click-to-call mobile VoIP and click-to-chat mobile IM using a patent pending core IP that uses proprietary call signaling that is P2P-based and cross device/network domain. It leverages mobile data (SMS) to control the signalling and the mobile voice network for the media stream to the mobile phone, so for instance you don't need the Skype, AOL, GoogleTalk, etc. clients running on your cell phone.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on January 1st, 1970 with no comments.
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