Before Google Talk released a few days ago I was completely unaware that the Gizmo Project even existed. Before Google Talk released a few days ago I doubt much I would have even cared.
Thats not to say that in-and-of itself Gizmo doesn't have what it takes to make it in the world of Internet-based text and voice messaging services. In fact, it very much does. The problem (and thus the "I doubt much I would have even cared" comment from above) is there are SO MANY messaging clients, both text and voice, its simply impossible to keep up with the latest addition to this (still!) ever increasing list unless I quite literally devoted each and every waking minute of my life to such a cause.
So what about Google Talk makes the Gizmo project suddenly seem interesting:
- Google Talk is backed by... (I'll let you fill in the obvious)
- Google Talk is based on XMPP, or Jabber, as it is known from the marketing side of this IETF-backed standards specification for XML-based Internet Messaging Protocol.
- Google Talk is also working on implementing an SIP-based voice service (at present time they are using a customized XMPP-based extension coupled with various voice codecs). SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol is another IETF-backed standard that focuses on the voice-side of Internet-based Communications. But don't let the simplicity of the name fool you into believing that SIP is only about initiating a Internet-based voice communication session... It goes MUCH deeper into the details of properly handling everything from the initialization of the session itself to transfering to a voice mail server to pretty much anything and everything else that we have come to expect in the non-internet based world of voice communications -- and beyond.
So how does this tie-in with Gizmo?
[from the Google Talk Developer page...]
3. When will federation with EarthLink and Sipphone be available?We do not have details at this time on when federation will be enabled. But we are working closely with Earthlink and Sipphone to federate EarthLink's Vling service and Sipphone's Gizmo Project with the Google Talk service as quickly as possible, while offering the best possible user experience.
What about Skype? As far as I am aware, Skype uses a proprietary communication and messaging protocol. So with Skype you are limited (speaking from a software and software development perspective) to what Skype offers (speaking from a software client or extensions made available via their proprietary API perspective.) In other words, write software for Skype and, at least for now, you are limited to the Skype service as far as what your software is capable of connecting to and supporting. Write an extension for Gizmo, and technically speaking, your extension should work with any SIP-enabled voice service. At the moment the difference may not mean all that much as far service providers are concerned. And before Google Talk, there was no real way to determine which service had true staying power. If Skype were to win out, it wouldn't be the first time a proprietary platform took the lions share of any given market.
But if Google Talk continues down this SIP-enabled path (and, based on the same Q/A from above, it seems pretty cut-and-dry they have every intention to do just that) instead of looking at a proprietary network vs. proprietary network battle between the likes of MSN, Yahoo!, Skype, AIM, etc... we're now looking at an extremely well financed effort at building a text and voice communication network on top of two open standard, open source (well, there is no 'open source requirement' but there are certainly plenty of open source projects focused on these two standards) software projects -- both backed by IETF, who just so happen to be the same standards body that the Atom Publishing Format and Protocol standard (it should be noted that the W3C is also publicly backing the Atom 1.0 Syndication Format.) is backed by.
I'll leave you to figure out how these three IETF standards could (and most likely will) be easily connected to form an open standards-based messaging powerhouse that would/will be difficult to reckon with... at best!
While I definitely have no intention of putting all my eggs into one communications basket, I most certainly know where and who I'll be getting my eggs from ;)
Enjoy your Standards-based Messaging Day :)