Google Talk is now speaking to other Jabber servers; nearly six months after the company released the instant messaging application.
Google Inc has opened up its Google Talk messaging network to open federation, meaning anybody will be able to interoperate with the service without having to sign a deal with the company.
Open federation is now part of Google Talk, meaning the software can communicate with other Jabber-based instant messaging clients, according to Google’s developer FAQ.
The move, if the search company can build user momentum for its own client software, could prove a catalyst for globally interoperable, standards-based instant messaging and voice over IP.
Instant messaging server that supports the XMPP protocol will be able to interact with Google Talk’s network, and vice versa. Google also reaffirmed its "commitment" to implement SIP, but would not give a timeframe.
XMPP, or extensible messaging and presence protocol, is an XML-based protocol for passing instant messaging and presence information among servers. The protocol is under the Jabber Software Foundation.
Google said on its Web site that it is committed to taking an "open federation" approach to instant messaging and Internet telephony, which means people on its network, can communicate with anyone on a system supporting XMPP.
We already had support for any XMPP client to connect to our network, so users had the choice of clients, said Google Talk product manager Mike Jazayeri. This is the server-to-server part, so if you have an account on the Google Talk network you can talk to clients on any other federated XMPP network, and vice versa.
By taking this step, Google hopes to move the industry "one step closer to making IM and Internet voice calling as ubiquitous as email," the company said, noting that XMPP is supported by Earthlink, Gizmo Project, Tiscali, Netease, Chikka, MediaRing, and "thousands of other ISPs, universities, corporations and individual users."
The protocol allows IM to function much like email. Users send messages through their XMPP server, which acts a bit like an SMTP server. These XMPP servers find each other using the DNS, but using the SRV record instead of the MX record.
The three biggest IM networks are operated by AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft, none of which are on that list. Getting those guys on board should be considered essential before any claim of global interoperability can be made.
But there has been movement among the competitors toward interoperability, primarily through alliances of self-interest.
Currently, Yahoo and Microsoft are connecting their networks, and expect to go live this spring. Microsoft is a strong supporter of SIP and SIMPLE, IETF-approved alternatives to XMPP, due to its Live Communications Server implementation.
Rather than just throwing open the doors to federation, the Microsoft-Yahoo deal has a business model backing it, the terms of which have not been disclosed.
Google’s potential trump card is its recent billion-dollar investment in Time Warner subsidiary AOL, which includes a clause to work to connect AOL Instant Messenger and Google Talk, "provided certain conditions are met".
Google and America Online Inc., which operates the largest IM network in the United States, have agreed to allow cross-communication. The deal was part of Google’s agreement late last year to invest $1 billion in AOL, which is a unit of Time Warner Inc.
Those conditions have not been disclosed. AOL, when it was in a stronger negotiating position, had previously been reluctant to connect AIM to other IM systems, proclaiming security and stability concerns.
Jazayeri said that the time between Google Talk’s launch last August and today has been used to test the service for security and load, but added that this week’s news is "unrelated" to the AOL deal. Google will "encourage all our partners" to use XMPP, he said.
Microsoft and Yahoo have said they plan to let IM subscribers communicate across their IM and VoIP networks in the second quarter of this year. The combined networks in the U.S. would be close to the size of AOL’s.