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08/07/2010 - Users demand Google Voice Desktop App

Google Voice is now available to the general public, but that's not enough for some users. At the time of this writing, an online petition asking Google to release a desktop app for the Voice application had over 3,000 signatures. The petition might have been considered a silly attempt by fans to sway a company to do their bidding, but leaked images and videos of an actual Google Voice desktop app in action have been circulating to fuel the fire.

Over at TechCrunch, Michael Arrington who has to-die-for connections has been teasing the public with video evidence of his Google Voice Desktop app usage. The desktop softphone app is an unreleased version of Google's Voice and Gizmo5 combo. The software still bares the Gizmo5 branding and a few weeks ago Google even hinted at killing off the desktop app project altogether.

For more:
- check out the TechCrunch story
- PCWorld has this story
- sign the petition here

10/06/2010 - Rumor Mill: Google testing Voice integration in Gmail

A Google OS blog that obsessively follows all the leads it gets recently received an anonymous tip that Google was testing Google Voice integration into Gmail. The tip was accompanied by a screenshot of a dial pad pop-up box akin to the chat box that we all know and love.

Whether or not the tip is from a real source in the know or if the screen shot is just a photoshop mockup, it's pretty much a given that Google is testing this functionality somewhere in their sprawling technopolis.

Back in April, Google was rumored to be testing a desktop application for Google Voice. According to Tech Crunch, Google was dogfooding the integration of Gizmo5 and creating a desktop application for their Google Voice project.

Additionally, in February Google's Enterprise President Dave Girouard explained in an interview with eWeek that Google has been building on its business app suite and will launch an enterprise version of Google Voice later this year. Since Google's apps are mainly cloud based, I could see this Google Voice/Gmail integration being the final product they hope to launch--rather than the desktop.

For more:
- read LifeHacker

08/04/2010 - Rumor Mill: Google Voice desktop app being tested

The sleuths at TechCrunch have been tapping their sources for more news about Google Voice. It looks like they were able to get some kind of obvious news out of some uncited sources (thus the Rumor Mill tag).

According to TC, Google has been working to integrate Gizmo5 and create a desktop application for their Google Voice project. The new application is an extension of Google Voice which in the past only allowed users to make and receive calls from a phone they registered with their service. In addition, the app reportedly under development will allow users to make calls from the desktop right from Google Voice without the need for an external phone service. Google is apparently 'dogfooding' the desktop app--code for internally testing.

For more:
- read the Tech Crunch post

04/01/2010 - 2010: The Year of Google VoIP?

Could 2010 be the year of Google VoIP? Perhaps. TMC blogger Tom Keating puts some puzzle pieces together and asks if Google VoIP is coming in 2010. He posits that Google's recently acquired Gizmo5 has a superior client to Google Talk--and might see the original Google Talk phased out and the Gizmo5 software renamed.

Keating digs up some choice Google quotes and a recent eWeek article all pointing to the launch of Google VoIP in 2010. With Gizmo5 Google has SIP-based calling, termination and Skype-like VoIP ready to go. Bradley Horowitz, Google's VP of product management didn't give away everything, but he did say in the eWeek article that Google hopes to free people from all the silos that separate their various forms of telephony in 2010.

For more:
- read this article

30/11/2009 - Gizmo5 migrating PSTN numbers to Google Voice soon

All these little tidbits related to Google's impending Voice moves are cropping up this post-Thanksgiving week. According to VoIP Watch, after a little snooping on the Gizmo website, you can find language that details the migration strategy of Gizmo5 numbers from the old service to Google Voice.

The Gizmo5 site explains to users that they are working on their migration strategy and that no call-in numbers will expire at this time. There will also be ample notice so that users will have uninterrupted service. Andy Abramson from VoIP Watch posits a few possible takeaways from the language on the site. Gizmo user's numbers could become their Google Voice numbers for life, Gizmo5 users will have to go through a transition period where numbers will be forwarded to new Voice numbers or Google might even sell off some numbers to another SIP call provider.

I might add that if Google is migrating Gizmo5 user numbers, perhaps they will complete the merger around the same time that GrandCentral shuts down. If that's the case, notes should be going out shortly to Gizmo5 users like the ones that GrandCentral users got earlier this month and the moves will be happening fast since GrandCentral goes offline at the end of December.

For more:
- read this blog

30/11/2009 - Gmail 'Voicemail' label reserved for future VoIP offering?

Looks like you can now add Gmail to the list of converged Google offerings that will one day make up Google VoIP. First there was Google Talk, then Google Voice, then Gizmo5 and now we've got new developments that point to Gmail joining the all-inclusive offering.

Notes on Twitter surfaced earlier today when Google enthusiast @ginatrapani discovered you could not create a label in Gmail called 'voicemail.' Labels serve as a way to filter your emails into folder like sections of your inbox. It looks like Google will soon be filtering your Google Voice inbox right into your Gmail account. (I actually use a label '! Voicemail' for my .wav files our VoIP system emails me, so you can still use that to get around the label block.)

Before the Thanksgiving break, rumors surfaced that Google was developing it's own mobile phone that would be based completely on VoIP data calling. Combine that hardware with the growing list of Google in-house developed or acquired voice offerings and you can see why excitement is mounting. With Gmail being a rather pervasive email system that many small businesses are even adopting, it's not hard to see the value of having your VoIP voicemails right there in your single inbox.

I took a screenshot of the error message for those interested in seeing what Google has to say when you try to make the label.

For more:
- see the screenshot of the Gmail message here

19/11/2009 - Google VoIP phone speculation already?

Ok, so my initial reaction to the Google VoIP phone news was rather skeptical. I imagined spending the rest of the day photoshopping and leaking various Google VoIP phone mock-ups and amassing tons of Digg traffic and perhaps a link from Slashdot. I thought this morning, "how quickly blogger speculation can jump to conclusions after a company makes a strategic purchase. Look at how within a week, we've gone from Google taking on Skype buy purchasing Gizmo5, a Skype-like peer-to-peer VoIP service, to Google manufacturing data-only VoIP phones with service contracts from its 'traffic-dumping' rival AT&T." But I guess sometimes, tech-blogger fantasies do come true. Alas TechCrunch has "absolutly confirmed" that Google is working on their very own branded, fully Google controlled experience phone, so I can't devote a whole Editor's Corner to how silly we are being.

So now they've got a phone in the works and before that they were getting more VoIP technology and number portability. A few weeks ago Google was denying that its services should be regulated like other telcos, but after its latest moves, it seems like its only a matter of time before regulators start treating it like one.

Acquiring Gizmo5 provides Google with a PSTN link enabling inbound and outbound calls to conventional landline and cell phones. Google Voice already provides a single number to pull in calls from all the various places people might try to reach a user. They've already made moves to allow users to forward cellphone calls to their Google Voice voicemail box in a sort of poor man's number portability. Google Voice can provide users with phone numbers and both Google Talk and Gizmo5 can provide peer-to-peer voice calls between users (and with the Gizmo5 software outside lines as well).

Add all these capabilities to Google's penchant for offering free services based on advertising and put them all on a mobile phone that uses a 3G or 4G network to pump fast over-the-air data with no voice plan minute costs and you've got a dangerous offering that probably threatens just about everyone--particularly phone manufacturers and carrier voice revenues. There has already been speculation that launching this phone would hurt Google's relationship with manufacturers that they have convinced to use the Android operating system. As for the carriers, claims have been made that the phone would not be tied to any particular one (although that would be highly doubtful in my opinion just based on the way the mobile phone world works).

If Google is successful, it won't be able to pass their data-service excuses by regulators or the taxman. It might take a behemoth like Google to do it, but the laws will change to include data-based calling within the telecommunications regulations and taxing. Unless of course we just want to tax the carrier's data plans more in Google's stead. And that brings up the net-neutrality debaters who might have a few things to say about Google trying to convince mobile phone users to ditch their old calling plans in favor of a mobile VoIP data-only plan as we should also remember that spectrum is a finite resource and Google doesn't own any of its own.
--Mike

16/11/2009 - It's official - Google gets Gizmo5

Last week we reported rumors that Google bought Gizmo5, an Internet VoIP provider that competes with Skype for peer-to-peer and low-cost VoIP calls. TechCrunch had reported earlier that Google had bought Gizmo5 for $30 million, but the official announcement had yet to be made. According to Google's Voice Blog, the Gizmo5 engineers would be joining the Google Voice team, and while current Gizmo5 users would continue to be able to use the service they would not be allowing new members to join.

It started out with Skype looking for ways to replace their underlying software-base with a similar product. Rumor had it that Skype would soon purchase peer-to-peer VoIP startup Gizmo5 for around $50 million. But when Skype was able to settle with its previous founders, their source code was secured and there was no need to purchase Gizmo5. Google, seeing an opportunity to add to its Voice/Talk offerings, swept in and picked up Gizmo5 instead.

By picking up Gizmo5, Google Voice--which has until now been mainly a service that offered numbers that could ring multiple phones as well as forward and transcribe voicemail to a universal inbox--will be able to add low-cost and free VoIP calling over the Internet and via mobile phones. The move means that Google Voice will now be in striking distance to give Skype serious competition while simultaneously putting the new offering in danger of being held to the telephony rules it has been circumventing all this time.

For more:
- see this PCWorld article
- see this article
- see the Google Blog post

09/11/2009 - Forget Skype, Google acquires Gizmo5 VoIP startup instead

Wow, remember a few weeks ago when Skype was beset by multiple legal actions from its founders and was in talks to acquire VoIP startup Gizmo5 to replace the underlying codebase that they were being sued over? Well things seem to be moving fast in the VoIP world because today, not only did Skype and its founders come to an agreement and save the underlying codebase, but Gizmo5 got acquired after all--just not by who'd we expect.

Google pounced on the the peer-to-peer VoIP provider Gizmo5 just as its chances of being acquired by Skype had been dashed. Gizmo5 is an unscaled, but proven peer-to-peer VoIP provider. It has six million users for its SIP-based P2P VoIP service. The service would add the a PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones which Google Voice currently lacks. According to TechCrunch sources, Google has bought Gizmo5 for $30 million, but the official announcement has yet to be made.

According to the Washington Post, Skype was going to purchase peer-to-peer VoIP startup Gizmo5 for around $50 million. The purchase was part of a back-up plan in the event that it's lawsuit with Joltid resulted in the company not having access to the underlying code Skype uses to make VoIP calls.

For more:
- read the TechCrunch article

Related articles
Skype may by Gizmo5
Gizmo5 builds (yet another) bridge to Skype
GizmoCall - VoIP a la Adobe Flash
Gizmo5 adds free conference calls

25/03/2009 - Gizmo5 CEO Challenges Skype For SIP

The CEO of Gizmo5 Michael Robertson has responded to last week's announcement of Skype for SIP by posting a comparison (see below) of the new service and his own company's OpenSky.
While welcoming Skype's initiative, he described it as a "vaporware announcement" with "murky pricing details".

19/12/2008 - Gizmo5 Introduces Browser-Based VoIP Application

Gizmo5 has launched a web-based VoIP app that allows users to call 800 numbers and SIP addresses for free.
GizmoCall is Flash-based, so it only requires a browser to use the service rather than having to download a software client.
Users go to the Web site, sign up for a username and password, and start making calls.

21/09/2008 - Skype accused of hypocrisy by Gizmo

Skype’s Christopher Libertelli recently questioned the major US wireless carriers’ commitment to open networks.
Today voip.biz-news.com has the response from Gizmo Project’s CEO, Michael Robertson, who accuses Skype of hypocrisy for wanting others to open their networks while refusing to open its own.

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