Huh. I switched to Google Video for speaking with my parents on the other side of the world, because Skype video just plain stopped working for some weird reason. It's slightly better both in terms of sound and video, and so far I've experienced less stuttering and freezes.
Skype is a P2P based application so performance can vary considerably based on your location and network topology.
Re:Skype mess: How far will this go?
by w1ntermute on Saturday June 25, 2011 @12:48PM
(#2696003)
For this same reason, I continue to use Skype. However, the technical issues you mentioned are nothing to Google if it puts its mind to it. The difficult part is getting a userbase that justifies those efforts. This period of market instability is the perfect opportunity to do so.
I dunno. Google's already had bright minds working on it for some time. Trying to do it in a browser will probably always be inherently problematic. Why they don't launch a standalone "Google Voice and Video" client... if there's an opportunity there, and they really want to own it, that'd be the route they should go, not more browser-plugin stuff.
Heck, perhaps this is part of what facebook's recent spate of desktop-engineer-hiring is going after?
Part of what I see is that Google does not have a good model for making Google Voice profitable given their revenue model because it doesn't drive eyeballs to Google search and the advertising customer base, and because datamining the communications of Google Voice's users for the sort of keywords and profiles useful for search has a huge potential for social blowback - imagine how some people would react to web page ad placement based on last night's booty call - not to mention the possible legal problems given the diversity of wiretap laws, e.g. state by state in the U.S. never mind world wide variations.
[Edit] Given changes in Google's leadership and the apparent emphasis on core function which seems to be underway along with the limited rollout which Google has done for Voice, I would not be surprised if it is destined for the same fate as Google Health over the next few years.
Of course it drives advertising revenue -- in the same way GMail does. More people using Google accounts every day is a plus for Google.
Re:Skype mess: How far will this go?
by ianterrell on Saturday June 25, 2011 @01:03PM
(#2696042)
I think "probably always" is not a safe phrase to use when talking about the future of browsers.
And whether or not you agree with that, I think it's clear that's where Google's money is.
Uh, how is a browser plugin different from a client-side application? They're both running native code. I don't see any technical problem.
I have far better experience with Google Voice quality when calling phones, but also find it disconnects with gvoice-gvoice so prefer Skype when possible. But with Skype-Skype calls, video conferencing etc and the ease of use with older family members, Skype has become so useful quite frankly I'm afraid that if Skype dies we'll put thrown back into the land of having no single point of guaranteed communication between all types of computer users. I hope that Skype succeeds for this reason alone.
The only thing going for Google is that it is, after Skype, the only cross-platform voice&video offering existing on the market.