Google acquires GrandCentral

[crazychester]

Ta-fucking-da! (http://www.grandcentral.com/home)

The plot thickens. They needed to move fast IMO. I can't see the telcos being as dumb as the labels. So, theories on how the plan for world domination is going to proceed from here. I keep getting this feeling that the .com bubble is still in the process of bursting but the next (or current) round of casualties will be traditional businesses.

[BuonRotto]

Another case of "how will this generate revenue?" Does Google have their foot in VoIP?

[Ichiban_jay]

Great... They got rid of the feature that allowed you to upload your own mp3's to replace the ringing tone... Thanks Google! :p


I'm kinda scared now that google has control over my e-mail, web searches, credit card info (google checkout), and now all my contact infos and phone numbers....

[Robo]

Google will rule the world.

Seriously, though. I can't wait for "Goobuntu." You know it's coming. :p

[digitaldave]

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords ;).

[neiltc13]

If this was the UK the Competition Commission would have stepped in a few years ago :p

[crazychester]

Another case of "how will this generate revenue?" Does Google have their foot in VoIP?
The answer to the second question would now seem to be yes.

I wish I knew more about economics to be able to come up with better ideas to answer the former. It's like there's what I think of as this burgeoning economy of free stuff that has arisen as a direct result of the difficulties associated with protecting any form of digital content and the DRM debate. I think Google and Apple may be on the same page when it comes to the implications of this.

After all, many people have argued for years that one of the problems with DRM re: the music industry was that it would shackle the technology. The one threat to the iPod's success was not the much predicted but never materialized "iPod killer" but the record industry itself. Imagine if they had got the upper hand WRT the iPod's DRM given consumers grumble about the limited amount of copy protection that it was released with. They had to be brought to heel.

As a software developer, Apple must have faced these issues years ago and their implications. And the economic implications for the tech industry are enormous. But I no longer think it's accidental that neither Apple no Google rely on digital content that can be copied (and/or stolen) and offered for free by somebody else nor that as a software company MS sure seems interested in HW these days.

People love free stuff and p2p, bittorrent, open source has already conditioned people to want and expect free stuff. Genie ain't going back in the bottle now. But the smarties are figuring out ways to make money out of free stuff. Why pay for a .mac account when Google can now meet my needs for free? Bye, bye .mac. And I dare say, when Apple releases it's series of iPhone updates over coming months with marked improvements in the products functionality, all those already fairly chirpy iPhone owners will feel like they've got something for free and enjoy a big dose of clever marketing warm fuzzies.

That's a big picture answer which is my excuse for it not making a whole lot of sense. ;)