Video Conference Improvement for Google Apps

Posted for Yulanda N.

I recently ran across an article on Google’s plans to make significant enhancements to Gmail’s voice and video capability in Google Apps.  Google Apps is a web base communication and collaboration suite for the workplace.  Over 20 million people in more than 2 million organizations use it. Google hopes to roll out these enhancements over the next 6 to 12 months  expanding Gmail’s voice and video capability from one-to-one communications to more than two participants.   According to the article Google plans to integrate these new capabilities into Gmail instead of a adding an additional application suite.  By integrating this with Gmail, Google anticipates IT departments could see an increase in network traffic because user are logging in/ out of multi-person video conferencing constantly.

I think these improvements will give Google Gmail users more of reason to use this software as opposed to searching for other software that allows large video conferencing.  I think the convenience of having an all in one tool out weighs everything.
Do you currently use Google Apps video conferencing?  If so, do you see these improvements as a benefit?   Do you think these improvements increase Google’s ability to compete with other enterprise Web Conferencing software giants i.e., Cisco’s WebEx or Microsoft’s Microsoft Live Meeting?

Comments

[Cornel B.]

I currently do use google video chat for just conferencing with one othe person but i do believe these future upgrades will further strengten google market share. gmail is a free service which is very attractive for users who are cost conscious

[Ying C.]

I am currently using gmail and its google video chat. Even though I am also using other online chatting messengers such as yahoo and msn, I still started using gmail chat. Unlike other messenger you have to install onto your computer, gmail chat is already set up on gmail. With the new video and voice function on gmail,more and more users are choosing gmail to communicate. Although I really like gmail and its new functions, I still doubt to use gmail for video conference. For video conference, we have to make sure that its voice system is excellent and I am not sure gmail is as good as skype.
I think skype is the best tool for voice conference and maybe in the near future, gmail will upgrade. We will use it for video conference. I am so excited to see what gmail will transform itself.

[James Kempski]

Currently I do not use Google Apps video conferencing but have used it in the past. It is great if you have a family member, say in London, that you want to keep in touch with and you have a video camera on your laptop. The Google Video conferencing is more geared towards serving the public market where Cisco's WebEx and Microsoft Live Meeting's are engineered for enterprise/corporate use. From a revenue aspect, Cisco & Microsoft will generate high volumes of revenue where the Google app is free to use.

From a personal perspective, I will occassionally use the Google apps video conferencing to communicate with my sister who lives in London. For my business career, I will strickly work with one of my companies largest partners, Cisco, for all video conferencing applications.

Although the overall funcationality of Google Video apps is realatively easy, I do not believe that Google's video conferencing has the capabilities of competing with the large enterprise video conferencing options such as the Cisco & Microsoft's of the world.

[Kaushik Patel]

Good enhancement to gmail video conference. That is one of the reason, I didn't use gmail chat/audio/video features because it doesn't have good features compare to other tools.
Having multiple participants to video conferencing will increase the product's use. It will be big boost because its a free product by Google! I am sure many people and organizations will make their switch to gmail video when they see these features. I still use yahoo IM video since many of my friends and family still uses that. I would love to make switch to gmail video as it doesn't have as much ads either and google apps are always slick and fast. It would be great, if you can use other tools (such as yahoo, skyp, etc) to do video conference with gmail video.

[Munib R]

This was expected, Google will definitly give the competition some thing to think about as from a begger to a billionaire the idea of FREE is very acceptable then the idea of FEE!, but i would agree with Kaushik that compatibilty with different Video tools like Yahoo and Skype would make it a definite success in my understanding.

[Steve F.]

My company already uses Google Analytics for measuring our web traffic, so they have website performance information for thousands of sites. I have a Gmail account, so Google already has that information plus any search queries I make while logged in.

What happens when Google also has the data in everyone's documents?

[Sally Loies]

I actually have never tried Google Apps video conferencing, but based on what others have indicated, it looks like it is a tool worth trying out. The current market that Google is targeting is not the enterprise or corporate market that is being targeted by Cisco's WebEx and Microsoft’s Live Meeting. Google’s market is more for personal use and for small to mid-sized businesses. The enhancements that are being made to Google Apps will only help to solidify its growth in individual and the SMB market. Additionally, the enhancements that Google is making may challenge corporate giants to be more innovative and cost effective in their offerings, which will be beneficial to the consumer.

[Amanda Fick]

The great thing about Gchat and video conferencing is the cost. compared to other services for one-on-one conversations it is the most price effective. This could be super beneficial for group projects and small businesses, but for larger companies, I think the investment in a WebEx or Livemeeting platform is still the best way to go.

[zahra]

Sounds great, I just create an account in Gmail last month ,and I found it very useful to use. By adding video conference that will attract many people to use it ,not necessary for business , but maybe a people who live abroad they can use it and it is free!! It is a big competition between companies and it is a field growing .

[Veerapatr.k]

I do use Google Apps but have never used video conferencing. Increasing up video and voice communications from Google within Gmail is a good decision because email is the most-used enterprise application by information workers.
I think those improvements will give Google to be more powerful enterprise in Web Conferencing Software for sure.

[zainab]

I use Gmail but I have not tried video conference because I use skype to communicate with my family at
Skype is sufficient for me and has a good voice and video quality …
The best thing that it allows more than one person , I meet with my mother and my sister in Saudi at the same time ,we like it a lot ,,,,but if Google will allows more than one in a video call this will be perfect and if it has the same quality as Skype I would switch to my Gmail…

[Haidar AlMubarak]

I have not used Google Apps video conferencing, but I can see where Google is heading with Google Wave, Video Conferencing .... etc. it will be a big challenge to the rest of the providers especially that most of Google tools are free for personal use which might increase the rate of adoption.

[Jeff Newton]

Google wants to be a complete solution provider in many different markets. Google, already a household name, can be used for directions, information (directory & web), browsing, videos, blogging, among many other things. Not many people know they have so many other options with Google service but they may with the large push of Google's Android mobile OS. Video conferencing is a good tool for many non-tech savvy users. Many people use video to stay in touch with family or friends a long distance away and they don't have to be computer geeks to do so. Google can help expand their reach with simple products, like this, that can be used by more than just the internet crowd willing to dig to all corners of the internet to find.

[Rin Chitinanda]

I haven't used Google VDO yet but I will try it out. I like the idea of one stop shop. My team used to use Gmail to meet and then signon Skype to use conference chat. Once we realized we can conference on Gtalk. We no longer need Skype. I'm not sure about using Gtalk at work. My previous company firewall blocked Gtalk . I think it would become concern after this feature is available. Like Yulanda mentioned , this could cause network congestion if people start using it at work.

[Tarngrud Tripitak]

I have never used Google Apps video conferencing, but I have Gmail account so I will try it out. It is very nice to have all the major communications channels as e-mail, chat, voice, and video in one place and under one log-on as Gmail. However, Google could layer in some more connectivity into its own apps like YouTube, Google Docs presentations, and Android to make it even richer.

[Joe Steinkamp]

I find this news very interesting not because of actually using video chat, which I do find useful, but because of how Google is going about implementing it only Gmail. I'm very confused on how Google is planning to implement all of this. Google currently has Google Talk which is added into their apps like Gmail and iGoogle. Google Talk even has its own application but it no longer gets support. Also Google is now working on Google Voice, which seems like the online Skype alternative.

I feel like Google needs to implement on the features of Google Talk into Google Voice and then add these new features of conference calling into Google Voice then integrate Google Voice into Google Apps. Does anyone else see this jumble of overlapping web apps?

[Lana Henderson]

Google is becoming so ubiquitous in their offerings, that it sometimes scares me as much as Microsoft. I do think there is great appeal in providing fully integrated services like this and for free that it will entice more people to use it. And the fact that many people already use Gmail is an added benefit. One thing that worries me is Google's penchant for making things searchable. I believe this is how they will incentivize people towards a pay option. Regardless, I don't currently have a gmail account, but I do use google project, docs, and video. I could see myself adopting this for school projects especially since collaboration is a big component in project work.

[Kyle Fishwick]

For security I would take Citrix other then that, I am all for as much 'face time' as you can get your hands on. Easy setup is something I always concern myself with here. How is the setup time and what does it incorporate. For example, for some reason my headphones work great on my reciever and my laptop, but when I go to my desktop I only get sound out of 1 ear. I have a mic and oddly it works on the laptop but not when I am Wimba'ed into the classroom. All these little annoyances are just other ways to do things though and they can be dealt with especially if it works.

The incorporation of multiple partys to an open line where you can share video is great but overall someone always wants to talk over someone else. Then it just becomes a mess. I would like to know if there were some way to slence others and turn them on or off with ease? That way the structure of the call can be kept together.

[Roselyn Odulate]

I currently use this feature with yahoo and I think it's great. I think it's would be an advantage to those who already have either google mail or yahoo mail so they don't have to sign up for other apps having those features. I also do think with google making it an additional apps instead of having a whole new apps for these features it makes it easy for those with google to pick up on whats new and go along with what is already existing.

[Grzegorz Walukanis]

I dont use Google Tools at all but I think that Voice conference with more than one person is very important to have.

I also think that Google should market their tools a bit different for business users. I dont want to know that the email I pay for is the same as everybody else gets for free.

I think that Google should look into the increase of bandwidth that they mentioned about. Maybe they should give the option to the admins to turn this feature off?

[Greg Chamopoulos]

This is news to me and this technology seems to be very interesting because with everything that google does, we will never have to remember another URL. Google is starting to become a business solution on a small level. The potential of this company is unmatched simply because they are such a household name. Their innovation is what makes them such a powerful and creative company. They never seem to stop making new sub-applications. It will be very interesting to see if people in large organizations will start to use this as a business solution.

[Kate Gory]

I work with a not-for-profit organization that has migrated to gmail for all of their organization's email. Since it is a fair trade organization with partners all over the world, an integrated, free multi-participant video conferencing tool would be very useful for them. However, I have to wonder if they would migrate away from Skype simply because the feature is integrated with gmail.

[Kevin M.]

I currently use google chat client (gtalk) to chat with my friends and family. I also use gmail's video conferencing feature sometimes to chat with friends overseas. I prefer this over any other chat programs because it does not require you to install anything on your computer and automatically detects your video camera for conferencing. I have never had trouble with this tool and was able to chat with clear picture and voice. Although opposite to most people on here who uses skype, I have had trouble in the past installing the software and webcam compatibility issues. I don't know how far along google is compared to companies such as cisco to compete in web conferencing but I do think that they have a pretty good chance given their size and resources.

[KTW]

As with most Google Apps, the great thing is they are economical- meaning free. But with that comes the question, will businesses want to adopt the open source technology for high-volume business? Any enhancement is a good thing; I have not used Google’s video conferencing personally because it’s mainly because I refuse to buy a web cam. I do however utilize other video conferencing tools in the business arena, so it would be interesting to see how the enhancements will increase usage.

[Michael Lang]

I currently use Google Apps video conferencing and I really think it's a great idea. I'm glad they decided against a separate suite. What I would like to see Google do is incorporate the video conferencing they're implementing into Google Apps with Google Voice, which is a separate application all together. I think it would be cool to conduct video conferencing through the Google voice application.