Who will keep the remote control for online video?

Speech recognition systems for the living room and Google +…

Source: google.com

Video in all its guises, we’re constantly being told, is the wave of the future and a potential clogger of networks. With Apple’s FaceTime and Skype apparently being embedded on the upcoming Windows Phone 8 smartphones, Google has also moved by pushing video for businesses via Google+. By I.D. Scales.

The still relatively nascent online video calling and conferencing market looks like it’s gearing up.  (see - “Can I help or are you just browsing?” Real Time Communications is on its way)  Apple (with FaceTime), Microsoft (with Skype) and the telcos slowly bringing forward their RCS (Rich Communication Services) offerings, along with a host of specialist subscription videoconferencing players, are all in the mix. Now Google has embarked on a sort of flanking move by announcing Google+ video for business users via the Google+ hangouts feature. 

 

There’s no real technical barrier to actually running person-to-person or group video streams across the Internet - the big issue for TelecomTV readers is what sort of company will steer the process by enabling the connections; what business models will they deploy and whose business models will they disrupt?

 

Google, true to form, is intent on offering free and easy-to-use video to bolster its Google + platform.

Advertisement

This is all about Google cementing its Google + social networking ‘glue’ across and between its growing set of online services for both business and individual use.  

 

The strategy is to make the Google platform ‘whole’ considerably greater than the sum of its parts by including all sorts of services, including communications services, as natural functions or features.

 

Google says the video function will be available to Google’s business users via the ‘hangouts’ part of Google+. The business offer gives business apps users (or rather their IT departments) necessary control over content via administrative controls, so that content can be shared between employees without security worries, or selectively shared with some people outside the company as well. 

 

Google is making these new features, including the video, free to through to the end 2013 as, it claims, it adds more and more features and controls. The idea is to get as many businesses using it as possible before Google slaps some sort of price-tag on it. 

 

Hangouts lets up to 10 people video chat at a time so, with the admin controls and businessy surround, it appears to offer a hefty challenge to Microsoft’s Skype at the more professional end of the market and an equally hefty challenge to telcos as they attempt to roll out their own video services to compete.

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - Speech recognition systems for the living room and Google +… Source:  google.com Video in all its guises, we’re constantly being told, is the wave of the future and a potential clogger of networks. With Apple’s FaceTime and Skype apparently being embedded on the upcoming Windows Phone 8 smartphones, ...