Found something else:
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Meetro and Google?
Search, blogging, maps, photos, email, and now a portal, Google has kept adding to their array of services. Is an instant messenger next for Google? Some say that Google has been planning this move for quite some time. In their Desktop search Google included the protocol handler: google_im://. Google gives the reasonable explanation that it is there for searches of you instant messenger conversations, and it is not there for some future IM software.
Most recently Google has been said to be buying out a company called Meetroduction, LLC for their instant messenger Meetro. Meetro describes themselves with these words:
Technically speaking, Meetro is radius and proximity based software. Untechnically speaking, it finds like-minded people around you instantly. Wherever you are. So whether you’re in-town or out of town, Meetro gets you on the town with old friends or new acquaintances.
So, is it true? Is Google writing the check now? Well, after a chat with Paul Bragiel, CEO of Meetroduction, the word is not right now. He called the whole story “rumors.” These rumors have boosted the number of user to Meetro, but have never been conformed.
Google already has an instant messenger. “Hello” is a product that they received along with Picasa. Said to mostly be for sharing pictures Hello, also allows user to chat about the pictures they share. Google still runs Hello, however, they never talk about it much, except as a way to publish pictures to Blogger.
Is Google trying to get in to the instant messenger market? Well, if they are it is very slowly. Surely, with more and more services will come a full feature instant messenger, but for now Google content to wait for the next big idea in IM.
