Some of you may have read the news already but for those of you who have not please visit Google’s press center for further information.

Last week, Google continued its shopping spree by acquiring San Francisco startup Episodic, a company which provides a platform for real-time video streaming and management. While Google has not yet announced what they plan to do with the acquisition, it is fairly safe to assume the technology will somehow get incorporated into the YouTube platform.

As a company which supplies real-time communications technology, we at GIPS hear quite a bit about real-time streaming technology. To be honest, the term “real-time streaming” seemed to be an oxymoron at first. How can something be considered “real-time” if it is being buffered and sent out with some significant amount of delay? However, the more I have thought about it, the more I think I understand the term. In my somewhat professional opinion, content could be streamed “real-time” if it is more or less being sent as it is captured. The difference between streaming and real-time communication is that streaming is strictly a one way street. There is no interaction between video senders and recipients; simply a video broadcast being sent out as it happens.

While I am not sure of the revenue potential for such technology (never let that stand in Google’s way), I can think of a few interesting applications, citizen journalism being one of them. Take yesterday’s 10^th Annual Bring Your Own Big Wheel race in San Francisco, perhaps my favorite day of the year. What if you didn’t want to brave the rain as a spectator, but still wanted to watch adults go down San Francisco’s curviest street on children’s toys? You could watch videos like the one below (notice Andrew in red at the start, and me in white at the 1:55 mark) in more or less real time.

Now, many people would be fine just watching an archived version of these kinds of events, but maybe there are enough folks who want to view it as it happens so they can feel like they are really there. To me it seems like two social trends- the on-demand/ DVR mentality, and the reality TV/ 15 minutes of fame world- are colliding head on. My guess is Google will simply add another feature to YouTube to make it easier to load and watch mobile videos, but that it will hardly revolutionize the site.

For at least the last couple years, it seems, I have been hearing about how everything is “moving to the cloud”. While it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly what that means, and how much of the talk around cloud computing could be classified as mere hype, I think I have a basic understanding of what people are talking about. As I understand it, cloud computing simply means a model in which most of the applications and services people use will be hosted centrally in the “cloud” (e.g. on a server accessible through the public internet or another data network), instead of on their local machines. There are some, most famously Larry Ellison, who claim that pretty much all computing today is already cloud computing. If that is true, then the cloud is being very poorly run. As I see it, disparate end user platforms are not well integrated, leading me to believe that the cloud computing model is either in its infancy or completely broken.

Lack of Enterprise Email Integration   

If my company utilizes Microsoft Exchange for its mail system, as most companies do, then that means all my email, calendar and contact information is hosted on our Exchange server. This information should be readily available to me regardless of my end device. If I check my email on my home computer via Web Mail, those messages should be marked as “read” when I log into my work machine. Similarly, if I dismiss a calendar reminder on my desktop, it shouldn’t pop up on my mobile phone. Finally, all contact information, whether it was created on my phone, desktop or by our IT administrator, should be merged into one concise contact list readily available on any device or platform. The issue, however, is that these things rarely happen. Each mail application on each platform (mobile, web, desktop) seems to have a mind of its own. When I go home at the end of the work day, I have a list of unopened calendar reminders on my Droid, even though I have dismissed all of them on my work desktop. This may be an issue with Android and Microsoft not wanting to play nice, but if the cloud advocates are correct, these issues shouldn’t exist.

Dumb Web Apps

What is Facebook, if nothing but information hosted within the cloud? If I update my status or post a picture from my phone, it reads the same to everyone as if I were at my home computer. However, when I open a message on my desktop, it does not mark it as “read” on my mobile app. One could even wonder why I need to log in to Facebook at all to read messages, when they are delivered to my personal email account. Once I read a message delivered to Hotmail from Facebook, shouldn’t it be considered “read” the next time I log into my Facebook account?  Apparently not.

Follow Me, Privacy Be Damned

The previous two examples should be incredibly easy to fix, but for some reason they still persist. If we can’t even overcome those problems, then even more advanced capability would appear to be doomed. But, living in a perfect world, wouldn’t it be nice to seamlessly transition between devices and carry on a session from one to the next? For instance, if I am reading a news article on my home computer, and wish to continue to read it on the bus on my mobile phone, wouldn’t it be great if that browser session was instantly available on my phone instead of having to go and search for the article again? Shouldn’t this be possible, especially if my phone and computer use the same browser? If I am logged in to my Google account, and using Chrome on my desktop, and Android/ Chrome on my mobile phone, there shouldn’t be any interoperability issues, and Google should be able to store all this information on their servers. Of course, this scenario could present some privacy issues, but the fact that we appear to be so far away from such a seamless user experience seems to indicate that effective cloud computing is either a myth or a long way off.

I believe that this week’s news about Google’s threat to pull out of the Chinese market has far reaching implications for the ultimate opportunity to provide more openness.  David Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer was interviewed earlier this week on CNBC (my apologies in advance for the really lame graphics, sound effects and screaming reporter):

Although Gmail was not yet a service available on google.cn, it was a service that many Chinese used on gmail.com.  And email is only one of the beneficial services available on Gmail.  Gmail (and its tightly associated Gtalk) is one of the leading providers of HD Voice.  Local Chinese Internet service providers Baidu and TenCent also offer HD Voice, but their ability to interconnect Chinese with international callers may not ultimately be as powerful as Google’s capability to do so.

During graduate school at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, I participated in a two week seminar in China on the ins and outs of doing business there.  Besides being very impressed with what I saw and the companies that I visited, it was very clear that there were a multitude of challenges to succeeding and that the effort was not for the faint of heart.  In many of the articles that I have read in the last week, I was surprised to read the speculation that Google’s true motivation for its actions was the second place ranking of its search engine.  Considering the challenges involved, I think that Google has accomplished a lot in the short time that it has been engaged in China.

Ultimately, voice and video over IP has the power to connect people in ways that aren’t fully possible via email or other more static information technologies.  This ability to connect and exchange ideas is an opportunity that all nations benefit from.  Hopefully, the Chinese government and Google can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement to provide the Chinese with the ability to reach out and connect with the rest of the world.  They have a lot to learn from us, and we have a lot to learn from them.

As a frequent consumer of pop culture criticism, I am well aware that it is almost 2010 thanks to all the “Best of 2009” (or now “Best of Decade”) lists. While sometimes predictable and cliché, I look forward to reading about the albums, books, movies and band names  that unite or divide critics. It’s a good way to discover music or movies that I had previously overlooked (this year’s winner: the Dirty Projectors) and it’s nice to take a look back at the year that was.

So, in that spirit, here are some of the most relevant stories in the telecom/VoIP/tech industry in 2009:

Net Neutrality Picks up Steam

With the new administration in Washington, the regulatory climate was noticeably different than the previous 8 years. The FCC began to look into possible monopolistic behavior in the mobile telecom market and the exclusive agreements between handset manufacturers and carriers. In addition, Congress offered proposals which would set actual rules around the regulation of the Internet. Major companies like Google, Apple and AT&T were all in the mix, and should be for the foreseeable future.

Android Offers iPhone Alternative

For all of us who were searching for a smartphone with iPhone-like functionality, but with a physical keyboard, a better network and an open platform, the Droid was the answer to our prayers. Perhaps that’s why Time Magazine named the Droid the “Device of the Year”. Subsequent news of a Google branded phone only fanned the competitive flames between Google and Apple.

Mobile VoIP Makes Waves

For years, pundits have been speculating about the arrival of mobile VoIP (I am sure at least blog or article in the next 14 days will proclaim that 2010 is the year). While I wouldn’t argue that mobile VoIP is here, or that it will soon be, it was a major component of the previous 2 storylines. One of the motivating factors behind the FCC looking into mobile operator behavior is carriers’ ability to block certain types of traffic (e.g. VoIP). In addition, Google Voice, while not technically a VoIP service, drew the ire of the FCC under allegations that it was blocking calls to rural areas. Also, the recent rumors surrounding the Google Phone indicate it may be an unlocked phone that will be sold without carrier subsidy, and configured to offer free VoIP calls. While mobile VoIP may not be mainstream, it sure is having an impact on the industry.

HD Voice Goes Mainstream

GIPS has been trumpeting the cause of wideband speech since the company’s inception. While the technology saw a great deal of adoption with the launch of PC-based calling services, it wasn’t until the marketing-friendly name “HD Voice” came along that it really took off. The number of companies announcing HD voice solutions, combined with industry organizations pushing for adoption of the technology, point to a potential for mass acceptance of a new standard of voice quality.

It seems that the slow holiday news cycle in the US has lead to media speculation. No, I am not talking about the Tiger Woods accident. I am referring to the industry publications that are abuzz over a rumored VoIP phone from Google.

While it seems plausible that we will see a Google branded phone in the next year, I have yet to hear a convincing business argument for why this would be a good idea, let alone why a VoIP phone would work in the current carrier-handset paradigm. As I wrote last week, I think Google is pursuing a very intelligent strategy by having an open OS that is available on a number of devices and networks. That strategy would seem to be jeopardized if Google followed an Apple-esque model of bundling hardware and software. In addition, carriers have shown absolutely no willingness to allow VoIP traffic on their networks, and I would imagine would be unlikely to subsidize a VoIP device from Google. The only way I could see this working is if Google sells the phone on its own, and users could go to a carrier to get a data plan, while using the phone for voice calls over WiFi. I am not sure how many people would line up for such a device, as anyone enticed by the proposition of cheap monthly phone bills would likely be turned off by the high upfront cost of an unsubsidized phone.

The rumors may in fact be true, but until someone presents a compelling reason why Google would launch a VoIP phone (or better yet, a reliable source willing to confirm said rumors!), I will continue to treat them as such.

Google’s purchase of Grand Central in July 2007 has been in stealth mode for some time but with the announcement earlier this week that Google Voice is being previewed by current Grand Central customers it won’t be long before Google starts creating more waves. Stay tuned to Google’s voice blog.

Having visited a number of tradeshows and conferences in 2009 it seems that in general voice is going to be a major topic of discussion this year, particularly HD-voice.

Jeff Pulver, co-founder of Vonage and former creator of the VON trade events will be holding an HD VoIP summit in late May. The summit will “look at the issues and challenges for the transformation of the existing communications infrastructure into one which supports HD.” I couldn’t agree more, HD voice/VoIP or wideband VoIP (as engineers prefer to call it) has the ability to transform our communications, whether it’s through our mobiles, PCs, office or home phones.

All of this is positive news for both the industry and consumer.  It was not that long ago (relatively) that nearly everyone with access to the internet used a dial-up connection. VoIP calls were possible then, and still are over a dial-up connection but the sound is akin to that of a regular landline or mobile phone.  For me, HD-voice is akin to the difference between using a dial-up connection and broadband. Once you’ve used a broadband connection there is no going back it will be the same with HD-voice… try it sometime.