Skype still doesn’t record! and conference calling is not reliable because Skype wants to use so much bandwidth. Some institutions block it.. and we’re still waiting for it to get interoperable!
Gizmo Project almost got there, it has all the features we like in Skype but with recording, and conferencing – but I never managed to get the conferencing to work. Again, it wants to use a lot of bandwidth.
Elluminate works on low bandwidth, but has never been very easy to use. Java conflicts, firewalls, strange icons, not free, not web based, not interoperable with phones or other VOIP applications.
Flash Meeting, Dim Dim, Adobe Connect all use the Flash player to web conference, and while that makes it potentially user friendly, it also makes it bandwidth hungry.
Google Talk – with its integration to Gmail has been pretty nice and simple, tends to work well on low bandwidth, but has not offered conferencing or recording.
All this looks like it will be swept away with the new Google Voice being released. As usual, Google is rolling out to the centre of the Universe first, so we hope and pray the rest of us will have access before too long. The clincher will be if Google Voice can handle large numbers in a web conference. Google! if you’re reading, I think this could be achieved by adding a push-to-talk setting like Elluminate use. If bandwidth starts to drop, the webconferencers switch to push to talk and so the data direction is prioritised.
Check out the full selection of demo movies about Google Voice.
Thanks to John for the alert by email.
10 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 13, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Anni
Good, let us know when we can use it!
March 17, 2009 at 1:25 am
Google Voice Launches, Perfect for Small Businesses | ReachCustomersOnline.com
[…] Times (sub reqd, content free only a short while). There’s also interesting commentary from Learn Online (which links to demos) and John Batelle at his […]
March 17, 2009 at 7:34 pm
davidmcquillan
Looks great.
It’ll be good to see it when it rolls out.
March 20, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Alexander Hayes
Better go get your G1 and test it out – http://www.t-mobileg1.com/
April 3, 2009 at 1:45 am
» OLDaily per Stephen Downes, 13 de març de 2009 TIC, E/A, FER / PER…:
[…] Veges les pel·lícules de demostració. Leigh Blackall, Learn Online (aprèn en línia) [L’enllaç] [Etiquetes: Audio xat i Conferències, Google, ample de Banda, […]
April 11, 2009 at 7:17 am
Brian
Probably the most accurate resource on the web for finding the right web conferencing vendor, solution, or product is the annual product reviews and Top Ten list from the Web Conferencing Council. This free report is found on their site at http://www.webconferencingcouncil.com. This year’s best of class award went to VIA3 from http://www.viack.com.
April 24, 2009 at 12:39 am
live meeting
I want to know that whether google is providing any Video conferencing software?
August 10, 2009 at 3:22 am
Jeen van der Meer(NL)
Google Voice for signup since Juli 1 but
unfortunately Google Voice this is only available for US citizens.
August 30, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Tek-Nos.com
Apple denied Google Voice for iPhones because this would have made the life of Mobile Carrier AT&T a lot more difficult and competitive. But thats business, what matters to the end users is the cheapest rates :).
September 17, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Top Search Engine Listing
google voice sounds like a great bot fo kit- any plans for it to become available in the uk