_J STownsle y .com    ₃₃₆

Randy rants a bit about the new google instant messenger. I agree with most of what he wrote, but I think there are some misunderstandings here:

1) Google has done a bit more than just using a open-source/open-protocol software, they’ve added audio on top of jabber. I haven’t dug into the packets yet but I can envision a few things happening soon: Google opening up jabber s2s (server to server) connections and third party apps implementing audio chat.

2) Jabber has the same degree of openess for attacks and spam bots that AOL AIM has. That is until Google publishes or adds a user directory (which I don’t think is going to happen anytime soon).

No, google hasn’t invented or revinented the wheel– but we have to remember this is beta. Google’s got more coming down the pipe for this product and it will be more than just advertisments. Today I have 8 instant messaging accounts online, in the future I see one jabber ID to rule them all.