Open federation for Google Talk
We've just announced open federation for the Google Talk service. What does that mean, you might be wondering. No, it has nothing to do with Star Trek. "Open federation" is technical jargon for when people on different services can talk to each other.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google has switched on XMPP federation for Google Talk the same day the company's Talkabout blog walked through what the switch does: users on different services can now message each other directly rather than being confined to one provider's roster.
The announcement matters because instant messaging networks had been run as closed islands, where a service's user list was the moat; by opening Talk to other XMPP servers, Google is betting that reach across networks is worth more than lock-in within one.
First-order effects
- Google Talk users gain the ability to exchange messages with people on any other federated service, expanding Talk's effective address book beyond its own sign-ups overnight.
- Operators of other XMPP-compatible servers can now interconnect with Google's network, making Talk a hub node in an open messaging graph rather than a standalone destination.
Second-order effects
- Closed consumer IM networks face pressure to justify why their users cannot reach Google Talk contacts — the value proposition shifts from 'join our network' to 'explain your wall'.
- Server software vendors and hosting providers gain a concrete enterprise argument for XMPP deployments, since a federated network lets organizations talk to Gmail-scale user bases without joining them.
Third-order effects
- If open federation proves durable, instant messaging trends toward email's model — addressing by domain, routing between independent servers — weakening the single-provider network effect that defined the first generation of IM services.
The trend: Consumer messaging is testing whether openness between networks can displace the walled-garden economics of proprietary IM, with Google Talk as the largest early experiment.