Google starts online talk service
Google, the world's most used search engine, is set to take on online voice and instant messaging service providers such as Skype, Microsoft and Yahoo.
The firm has released a free service called Google Talk, which lets e-mail account holders talk to each other via a PC, microphone and speakers.
There had been speculation that Google would use the cash from a $4bn share sale to buy its way into the market. Instead, Google promised to try to make Talk work with other firms' offerings. Google Talk will also offer instant messaging, but unlike other services such as Skype or Vonage it will not let users make calls to land lines or mobile phones.
Catch up
It also wants to offer users the ability to talk to people on other providers, something that some rivals with closed systems cannot do at present.
Analysts warned, however, that Google had a lot of ground to make up on its rivals such as Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft, which already have millions of signed up users.
A trial version of Google Talk can be found at: http://www.google.com/talk
in BBC