Google married its e-mail and instant messaging services on Tuesday in a union designed to further streamline the online communications of customers.
The Silicon Valley-based Internet search giant introduced Gmail Chat, which allows users to quickly start instant message conversations with people they are e-mailing, said product manager Keith Coleman of Google.
"We wanted to make it easy to switch back and forth between messaging and e-mail, and let you keep a record," Coleman said. "If you compose an e-mail, with a single click, you can start chatting with them."
"The history of the conversation will be right in your inbox. Gmail Chat treats messaging and e-mail the same way, all savable and searchable," he added.
Gmail Chat is designed to "leave a nice trail, like email" but has an "off the record" feature that leaves no trace of selected exchanges, Coleman said.
"Sometimes messaging conversations you have are private and sensitive," Coleman said. "You click a link, and that means the chat won't be saved in your email account or theirs or anywhere in between."
Google launched its new Gmail service for the English language interface early on Tuesday, according to Coleman. Gmail Chat service in other languages will be phased in during the next four to eight weeks, Coleman said.
"It makes sense to tie the two things together," said industry analyst Martin Reynolds of Gartner Consulting.
"The question is does Google have enough critical mass in its Gmail base to drag people into their instant messaging."
Google's aim is to give Internet users another reason to use its site and, hopefully, click on advertising links there, according to Reynolds. Google revenues come from advertisers who pay the search engine "per click."
"Google's goal is to build hooks into your computer," Reynolds said. "Not in a nefarious sense."
"They want you hooked to them in whatever way they can. In doing so, they make themselves indispensable on your desktop."
Google's infrastructure enables it to rapidly launch services such as chat or maps, while it has proven skillful at targeting users with advertising that isn't blatantly intrusive, according to Reynolds.
"The one thing they have to be careful of is not driving clicks to advertising sites just to build revenues," Reynolds said, alluding to industry concerns regarding "click fraud."
"They have to be legitimate clicks," he said.
Google has advocated for an "open federation" that would allow people using e-mail or chat to connect with each other no matter which Internet messaging service they use, according to Coleman.
In related news, The head of Amazon.com Inc's online search effort is leaving to join Google, the latest in a series of high-profile hires for the search engine leader.
Udi Manber, who has been chief executive of Amazon.com's A9 subsidiary, will be a vice president of engineering at Google, spokeswoman Lynn Fox said on Tuesday. She declined to provide more details, including when Manber will start and what specifically he will work on.
Manber's defection marks the latest coup for Google, the Mountain View, California-based search engine company that is proving a formidable foe for many technology industry titans.
In September, the company snagged Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf from MCI Inc. Also last fall, Microsoft Corp and Google waged a court battle over Microsoft executive Lee Kai-Fu's (
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