Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
CTO
| VoIP & Gadgets blog - Latest news in VoIP & gadgets, wireless, mobile phones, reviews, & opinions

Google

Google Blog Search Doesn't Suck?

May 25, 2007

After bashing Google Blog Search (saying it sucks) just 3 days ago, a Google engineer came across my blog article and emailed me. He stated that Google corrected a bug with their back-end and that TMCNet's blogs were back in Google Blog Search. Kudos to Google for not only responding so quickly but for proactively contacting me since I had difficulty reaching Google.

The funny thing is that he emailed my old email address (tkeating @ tmcnet . com) which should have bounced back to him as System Undeliverable.

Google Blog Search Sucks

May 22, 2007

Google Blog Search sucks and here's why. First, it is cluttered with spammy MFA (Made for Adsense) blogs that often aggregate (steal) content from legitimate blogs. I used to use Google Blog Search to see who was linking to my blog and to track any interesting blog conversations. Now, if I want to track any blog conversations I stick with Technorati.com and Techmeme.com.

Google Talk to offer PSTN phone calls?

May 19, 2007

A Google Apps multimedia training presentation shows Google Talk with "Show dialpad" in the user interface on Slide 9. It also says "Enter a name or phone number." Currently, Google Talk only lets you dial other Google Talk users, and the Gizmo Project - it doesn't support PSTN dialing, though there are some third-party add-ons that enable PSTN dialing from Google Talk, such as GTalk2VoIP. However, GTalk2VoIP uses their own termination network not one from Google.

So looking at this screenshot taken from an official Google page, can SIP-to-PSTN calling from Google Talk be far behind? How bout free PSTN calling?

Googlemania = Future Breakup?

April 18, 2007

Google has been on a buying spree, recently picking up DoubleClick, YouTube, and Trendalyzer. They've also acquired in the past Picasa, Keyhole, Tonic Systems (a new Powerpoint competitor), and a plethora of other companies. Google is just about the most loved Internet company, used by millions of Internet users, and is far and away the predominant search engine. In fact, simply saying "Just Google it" has become part of our vernacular.

VoIP Patents run amok

April 2, 2007

We have all been following the various VoIP patent lawsuits. From the Rates Technology vs. Google Talk lawsuit, to Apple vs Cisco iPhone lawsuit, Verizon vs. Vonage patent infringement and many more.

Google Announces Free In-Home Wireless

April 2, 2007

Google is now offering free in-home wireless broadband service as part of their TiSP beta. According to Google, "Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for? Introducing Google TiSP (BETA), our new FREE in-home wireless broadband service. Sign up today and we'll send you your TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD."



The installation instructions are pretty easy to follow and involve fiber-optic cable, a router, a sinker, and most importantly, your toilet. That explains the name TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider)

Check out the speeds you can get:
  Trickle The #2 Royal Flush Download speed (max) 8 Mbps
(10X basic DSL) 16 Mbps
(20X basic DSL) 32 Mbps
(40X basic DSL) Upload speed (max) 2 Mbps 4 Mbps
  8 Mbps Price Free $9.95/mo. $24.95/mo.   Actual speeds will vary, depending on network traffic and sewer line conditions.










Gizmo marries Yahoo, MSN Messenger (Live), Jabber, and Google Talk

February 27, 2007

Om has the news on SIPphone's Gizmo offering free VoIP calling to most of the major IM clients. While Yahoo! and Microsoft already offer instant messaging interoperability, as far as I know, you can't do VoIP between these two IM networks. The interoperability agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo is IM only. But with Gizmo, you CAN do voice over IP calling from Yahoo to Microsoft MSN Messenger.

Hotty.com SIP Phone for Phone Sex over IP?

February 2, 2007

I recently discovered Hotty.com, a website that is offering a new SIP VoIP Softphone, Megapin Inc. has developed a few SIP and Jabber products that they offer to service providers and wholesalers to OEM, with full "skinning" capabilties. One of their prodis M2-UA, a SIP softphone application and the other is M2-IM, which has both SIP and Jabber IM/presence support. The M2-IM product will support Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ, and Google Talk. Their softphone products feature standard voice codecs including G.711, GSM, and Speex.






I was actually checking out the Hotty.com website last week, but now their homepage shows a 55 day countdown till the product launches.






Google Maps in Search Results

January 16, 2007

Google click-to-call launches

November 17, 2006


Google finally launched their click-to-call feature, which is available from Google Maps. Rich has the scoop and he gave me the head's up on the news and he has a detailed write-up, including who is powering the termination - namely VoIP, Inc. Nice scoop, Rich!

The above screenshot is a test call I made called the famous Pepe's Pizza in New Haven. Best of all, the call is FREE!

The official Google Blog has more.

Update:
Techcrunch also talks about this news. In one part Techcrunch says "The calls are powered by Google Talk and Skype"

How is this powered by Skype?









Featured Events