The New York Times report of a Google “communications” tool being launched midweek skips by the fact that Google already offers an IM tool: photo-based Hello.com. Acquired last year with Picasa, Hello is a free app that allows users to share photos and chat about them within a private network. It’s described in the Google tool list as “Instant message your pictures to friends.”
Hello uses 128-bit AES encryption and, according to notes on the site, worls like a built-in firewall protecting the files on a user’s hard drive. It’s only one-to-one for now but the site also says a multi-user chat room in is the works. (It also doesn’t work with proxies.) More interesting to me after some extremely frustrating sessions trying to send files with other IM apps — users can send and receive files through firewalls.
Of course, whatever’s coming could have nothing to do with this but Hello’s features look like a good base and Google has had a year to work with it.
postCount(‘goog3′); | postCountTB(‘goog3′);
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post