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Google Hires Gaim's Main Developer
Posted by
Zonk
on Thu Oct 13, 2005 02:58 PM
from the new-front-in-the-communications-war dept.
from the new-front-in-the-communications-war dept.
astrab writes "According to Dirson's blog, Google's just hired Sean Egan (the main developer of Gaim open IM client), just the same day Yahoo! and Microsoft plan to link their respective proprietary IM networks." From the post: "While Yahoo! and Microsoft link their proprietary networks for Instant Messaging, Google bets on Open Protocols to make information universally accessible ... Currently, Google uses XMPP/Jabber specs, but they claim to be supporting open server-to-server federation, and work "to hear from other people in the communications industry about how best to build a federation model that is open, scalable". In fact, there are this month several tests with firms like EarthLink, Sipphone or PeopleCall. "
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iChat (Score:4, Interesting)
I will be happy when gtalk works with my jabber account in iChat.
Re:iChat (Score:3, Insightful)
I will be happy when gtalk works with my jabber account in iChat.
I'm not sure I follow you. Gtalk works just fine when configured as a jabber account in iChat, Google even has instructions up on their page as to how to configure it. Or did you mean when/if Google allows Gtalk to talk to other jabber accounts than Google ones (which is an issue unrelated to ichat or any other client)?
Looks like (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Looks like (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Looks like (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Looks like (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Looks like (Score:5, Funny)
IM sick of people msn around with these stupid puns. If anybody here is actually funny, I seek you.
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Jobs in OSS (Score:5, Interesting)
Hired a month and a half back (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Jobs in OSS (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Burn me down!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Or am I supposed to donate all of myself, and my families welfare for your ideals? Look at the founder of Gentoo, Daniel Robbins ... The guy stepped down when he was 40k in DEBT living his ideals.
Could it also be that the way to chang the system is to work inside it? I have influence over products, IT, and software decisions from this position I wouldn't have mooching off my folks and writing OSS software in the basement.
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Webcam (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Webcam (Score:4, Insightful)
Video is NOT always an improvement.
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Re:Webcam (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Webcam (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Webcam (Score:3, Funny)
How else are we going to see live naked girls? Go outside?!
Re:Webcam (Score:5, Insightful)
Setting aside the corporate necessities for video conferencing; video over IM clients is a great way for families to interact when members are a great distance away. Text and voice is good to a point, but getting to actually SEE your loved ones (in a non-static picture) fulfills a deeper need. I'm sure a psychologist could better explain that than I could.
The fact that, in your opinion, video is a "stupid addition" is absolutely irrelevant in today's society.
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Different methods (Score:5, Interesting)
The most popular IM client? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The most popular IM client? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The most popular IM client? (Score:3, Informative)
Oh great (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh great (Score:5, Funny)
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Some fun with puns (Score:4, Funny)
Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Open up the inter-server links, Google. (Score:5, Informative)
We plan to support open server-to-server federation. We do believe, however, that it is important to have the safeguards in place to ensure that we maintain a safe and reliable service that protects user privacy and blocks spam and other abuses.
So hang in there and it will happen. In the meantime I guess you could email them if you were really anxious: federation at google.com
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So what you're saying is... (Score:5, Funny)
The AIM in Gaim... (Score:3, Funny)
By George, I think she's got it!
Re:So what you're saying is... (Score:5, Funny)
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a bad day (Score:3, Funny)
Re:a bad day (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you seriously crying over the fact that the guy will now have more than enough drachmas to buy himself food now? If anything, his hiring by Google ensures that he'll be working on Gaim even more now.
Has Firefox stalled with Google hiring some coders? Sheesh, its not like Microsoft hired Linus all of a sudden.
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Open Source Client versus Open Source Server? (Score:5, Interesting)
It does sound good, in some ways, but I worry about rogue servers and rogue clients. IM has been virtually free of direct spam attacks (I have only received one in my entire life), and I fear that without having some corporation's control in their propietary medium, we'll see more spam and less usefulness.
Look what happened with the "open standard" of Usenet. It is SO informative and so readily useful, isn't it? I'm not a fan of most Yahoo Groups but the ones I read are generally spam free (moderators) instead of being spam magnets.
Yes, there is a place for open source, but I don't think this is it. I'm willing to hear reasons why Google's desire to have a open server-to-server federation will be good for a product that already offers me everything I need (at the moment). What new features are going to replace the current text-to-text feature that is probably used by 100% of IM's users. Is VoIP really an extension to IM or is it a different product? Aren't there enough programmers added on features to the propietary AIM program that is doesn't seem to warrant the need for a more open standard? Does the propietary standard offer manufacturers more reason to police their networks of abusers, and is it wrong for these companies to assume to make a profit in order to pay for the massive infrastructure needed to provide IM services?
I do understand the need to open the standard for client-server interaction. More clients means more features, more stability, and more control over your applications on your computer. It also means more clients for lesser-used operating systems, better integration into non-PC stations (media centers, phones, etc), and possibly more people using the IM system.
Re:Open Source Client versus Open Source Server? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, there is a place for open source, but I don't think this is it. I'm willing to hear reasons why Google's desire to have a open server-to-server federation will be good for a product that already offers me everything I need (at the moment).
Scenario: I run a small business and I want to be able to run an internal server that lets my employees chat and video chat with one another and transfer files in a secure, encrypted fashion. Due to security concerns and government regulations I can't use someone else's server. Further I would like to enable my employees to chat with people in other companies and with anyone else they feel like either through a mostly secure, encrypted messaging system or an unencrypted messaging system. I'd like users to be able to choose the client that suits them and that runs on any given platform. Finally, I don't want to poke a half a dozen holes in my firewall and I don't want every user to have to run five different accounts to talk to all the different people they know.
The proper answer to this problem is for the industry to move to an open standard. It works just fine for e-mail, and there is no reason it won't work for chat.
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Don't be Tom Smykowski (Score:5, Insightful)
In short, if anything this is good because ensures that Gaim will not die. Google hired a dev, they didn't somehow buy the whole project.
Linux is not their first priority (Score:3, Insightful)
Jabber + PostgreSQL == good (Score:3, Interesting)
The more Jabber developers and users the better... it'll just keep getting faster and more stable!
Get in the GAIM (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone got some innovative web apps to develop?
Contact information:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/index.html [google.com]
Google Benefits
We have never forgotten since our start-up days that great things happen more frequently within the right culture and environment. So we offer Googlers a generous host of benefits as part of our efforts to keep Google a motivating, healthy, and productive place.
Among the various benefits many Googlers enjoy:
* Health care for you and your family, plus on-site physician and dental care at our headquarters in Mountain View, California
* Vacation days and holidays, and flexible work hours
* Maternity and parental leave, plus new moms and dads are able to expense up to $500 for take-out meals during the first four weeks that they are home with their new baby
* Employee referral bonus program
* Employee assistance services for personal issues, childcare referrals, answers to financial and legal questions
* Learning opportunities and tuition reimbursement
* Adoption assistance
* Google Child Care Center, just five minutes from Google headquarters in Mountain View
* Back-up child care helps California parents when their regularly scheduled child care falls through
* Free shuttle service to several San Francisco, East Bay, and South Bay locations
* Fuel Efficiency Vehicle Incentive Program
* Employee discounts
* Onsite dry cleaning, plus a coin-free laundry room in the Mountain View office
Look for us to continue exploring novel ideas in benefits, compensation, and culture. Our goal is to build a company characterized not only by success and innovation, but also by the highest levels of integrity and fairness in our dealings with one another.
Why can't all companies be like Google??? The world would be a better place.
Re:Get in the GAIM (Score:4, Insightful)
Try reading that again, except substituting this at the end:
Why can't all *countries* be like Google??? The world would be a better place.
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Sounds exactly like Google (Score:5, Funny)
Google sells real Information Technology? (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of you may have already realized this, but for me, I had this realization while reading this article summary. Google is like the first real IT company -- this is what the computer revolution was meant to be.
Gaim posted this news yesterday (Score:4, Informative)
That sound you just heard...... (Score:5, Funny)
in other google hiring news (Score:5, Interesting)
Google is looking for Mac developers [blogspot.com]. Signs of more cross platform software coming from the Googleplex?
Re:Um, this is supposed to be a GOOD thing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Um, this is supposed to be a GOOD thing? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Um, this is supposed to be a GOOD thing? (Score:4, Informative)
Working at Google
I (Sean) have been hired by Google, moved to Seattle, and have been working on the Google Talk team for about a month and a half. The goal of Google Talk is to make real-time communication as open as possible, and in that regard, I've been working to offer all of Google Talk's features into other clients. Currently, I'm working on making it as easy as possible for other clients to use Google Talk's voice features. You can expect Gaim and other clients to be interoperable with Google Talk's voice features in the near future.
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Try again (Score:5, Informative)
Just because Google has bought the main Gaim developer does not mean work on Gaim will terminate. For one thing, there is no reason why the Gaim developer cannot continue work on Gaim while working for Google. Since Google has shown willingness to some degree to finance open source projects, it is quite likely this is exactly what they want him to do. Most likely what we will see is that Gaim will have support for GTalk added to it. For another thing, Gaim is open source, so even if the main developer quit all work on Gaim, Gaim will continue to be available and continue to proceed in development.
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Re:Try again (Score:5, Informative)
Doesn't work like that, Google promotes GTalk as a network not as a client, which is why it even has tutorials to make other clients (OSS like GAIM or AdiumX, but even "commercial" like Trillian or iChat).
Which is also while they'll more than likely include S2S to their servers.
And finally every google employee that I know of has 20% of his working time (aka 20% of his paid time) that can be spent on personal projects (and should, they're taken in account in employee evaluations) and can use Google resources (code repositories and computers) for. And GAIM sure qualifies for a personal/OSS project.
TFA states that Sean announced he'd be working with Google at making it easy for other Jabber clients to include Google Talk voice service, therefore also improving GAIM, but even if that wasn't the case he still'd be able to work on GAIM.
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