The most popular companies offering VoIP service (like Vongae, Skype,

and Sun Rocket, for example) may soon find themselves threatened by Google Talk. Currently, Google Talk is an instant messenger service that takes IMing a step further by allowing voice transfer in addition to text. Like other IM clients, it is free to download, and it interacts with many of the other services out there, including Trillian, iChat, Psi, GAIM, and Adium.

Apparently, the Internet giant is considering expanding Google Talk into a full-fledged competitor to the VoIP services already on the market. This is troubling for those service providers, but may be quite a boon to the end user, as it.s likely that Google Talk would continue to be a free service.

In addition to the kind of technological know-how that would be required to integrate Google Talk with conventional communication systems, the company also has the name recognition and trust that would be required to gain widespread popularity for a Google Talk VoIP service. With no monthly subscription fee and a service that is easy to use, Google could become a major player with this technology.

The simplicity of the Google Talk feature could be its holdup, however. As it would most likely be an easy-to-download piece of software, there isn.t a lot of opportunity to add on the features that current VoIP providers are so fond of including with their services. Google would likely struggle to be able to add capabilities such as call waiting, conference calling, call blocking, etc.

Of course, Google should never really be counted out when it comes to technological advances. If they chose to really try and make Google Talk a major competitor to the VoIP services already available, there.s not much to stop them. With incredible access and creativity, the corporation has repeatedly proven that it can do what it sets out to do.