"The Web is evolving quickly as a development platform, and real-time video and audio communication over the Internet are becoming important new tools for users," said Rian Liebenberg, Engineering Director at Google. "GIPS technology provides high quality, real-time audio and video over an IP network, and we're looking forward to working with the GIPS team at Google to continue innovating for the Web platform."
Google will pay $68.2 million for a company that provides VoIP technology for many popular IM clients like Yahoo Messenger, AIM, Nimbuzz, QQ, IBM Lotus Sametime and for conferencing software from WebEx and Citrix. It's clear that Google intends to improve its instant messaging platform and to launch an online application for conferencing. An early version of Google Meetings has already been demoed at a recent event:
