Google’s road to Instant Messenger

Google already dominates the search engine market, where once Yahoo! ruled user’s browser. With GMail and Google Desktop Search, they are entering prime time Microsoft domain. Speculation prevails that it will not be long before Google enters the instant messaging market. We have discussed before that Google already has a working Instant Messenger that works fine for what it is in Hello which Google attained with the acquisition of Picasa.

There are more signs appearing that leads to speculations on the emergence of a full-fledged instant messaging solution from Google through Google Desktop Search. CNet reports:

Richard Smith, a well-known security consultant, said he examined the code in the desktop application and found included in the program files a new protocol: “google_im://”. (A protocol allows desktop software to interact with the Web browser.) “This is a good sign there’s an IM client,” he said.

Though Google says, it is just a way to interact with the AOL Messenger whose logs are searchable through the Google Desktop Search service. But knowing Google, I won’t bet against bigger plans from their stable. I already adore Hello for what it is, and I like Picasa for managing my images. They just need to enhance Hello and integrate with other Google services and launch it as the Google Messenger to enter into the market in a big way. Or maybe they have better plans then this!