links for 2009-11-13

A couple of decades later, we’ve found that “status messaging” or “microblogging” or whatever we want to call it is a powerful communication tool. We need now to tear down those walls and move it to a distributed and decentralized architecture.

Will GoogleVoice be a competitor for Skype? Does Google even have the "product" nous to sell and retail the products globally that can make this all happen? I still don't buy the number as convenient as a replacement for mobile… but I do regard it as an awesome solution and direction for the "shared" line and thus replacement for the home landline. A little Linksys box and free calls. (I use Gizmo5 and GoogleVoice as my home number). The Home office! potentially just got a lot smarter and more flexible too. Let's not be too glassy eyed about this. Google's marketing falls way short and Gizmo's UI is not exactly best in class. Google has many opportunities that don't exist yet in Skype. Eg email to call, SMS to call back, other signaling options. Then they can just make Orkut a CallerID. In the end I don't know whether to hate them from the outset (worry worry worry) or embrace them and help accelerate change. IMHO… this is not a corporate play but individual.