14 DAY TRIAL // Google is moving into new markets almost as fast as it's rolling out new products. Despite its emerging ubiquity though, several areas are getting the most of the attention in the coming year and one of the most interesting ones is voice. Operating systems are also uncharted territory for Google, but seeing how Chrome OS is just a bit more than a browser that can access USB drives, it's voice communications that are the true frontier for the search giant.
Android and the upcoming Nexus One phone are great but they're hardly revolutionary. What Google plans with Google Voice and the recent acquisition of Gizmo5 is though, and it may very well be the biggest change to voice communication in quite a while.
Google Voice is currently in private beta. The service enables users to have just one phone number through which they can be contacted regardless of where they are and what device they're using or what mobile carrier or landline. It supports SMS and can even take over the actual phone calls to provide the users with cheaper calls. It also comes with a set of additional tools like automatic voicemail transcriptions. In itself, it's quite a compelling product but it still relies on existing phone lines and contracts.
The biggest move may come via the Gizmo5 acquisition. Gizmo5 provides users with a so-called soft-phone that enables people to make VoIP calls from their computers but also from mobile devices. By integrating Google Voice and the existing Google Talk voice capability with the Gizmo5 clients Google gets a unified and complete voice communication solution, which abstracts not only the data medium, mobile connections, WiFi, broadband etc., but also the device itself. The VoIP Watch blog lists some very solid possibilities for Google, which paint a pretty clear picture of what's coming.
When Google gets all pistons firing on its Voice service it will create a new hybrid market, part VoIP part mobile communications, in which it won't have any real competition but that could pose serious trouble for existing players. If this, though, doesn't give mobile operator executives sleepless nights, they're probably not doing their job very well.