Google's latest moves

Wall Street Journal personal technology columnist Walter Mossberg rounds up the latest Google offerings today and concludes: "Google Desktop and Google Talk are useful programs that have great potential. They just might make Google your new best friend, and that would be bad news for Microsoft."

David Pogue of the New York Times assesses the Google Desktop in this story today, complete with an audio slide show.

On the subject of the new Google Talk instant messaging and voice communication program, Microsoft took the opportunity to point out that this is one area where Google is playing catch-up. Microsoft issued a statement yesterday in response to requests for the company's thoughts on the latest Google offering. It read in part:

"At MSN, we have been focused on building MSN Messenger and other communication services for 10 years and continue to invest and innovate. IM is something that Google absolutely has to do if they are going to be a real 'portal' type of site on the web with services that create sticky relationships with their customers."

The statement also referred to further plans to "delight" MSN's customers. Among other things, it mentioned some of the improvements in the latest update to MSN Messenger, version 7.5, released this week. (The company earlier this year added an enhanced voice chat capability to the program.)

On a related topic, in case you missed it, The New York Times yesterday ran a fascinating story about the shifting attitudes toward Google in the tech industry, comparing and contrasting its position with those of Microsoft and IBM. We also republished the article in today's P-I business section.

Posted by Todd Bishop at August 25, 2005 11:27 AM