Three weeks after reporting that Google Talk had a minuscule user base of 44,000 in the US, Comscore, a respected information resource is about to release an updated report, sources say. We have contacted Comscore via an email. Since its already late at night, we don’t expect an answer up until tomorrow morning, hopefully with an updated dataset.
The controversy over the total number of Google Talk users erupted following an article in The New York Times. The numbers sounded awfully low, and the anecdotal evidence suggested otherwise. We asked folks over at Comscore, and they pointed out that there were 976,000 people who had Google Talk application installed on their desktops, and there were 44,000 active users. (The total user base, Comscore spokesperson was much large on a global basis.)
We posed the question to our readers, and were treated to a lively debate. About 568 GigaOM readers participated in a online poll, and the results provided anecdotal evidence that the Gtalk numbers might be a tad under reported. Nearly 39% said, they were Gtalkrs.
The vociferous debate indicated that the 44,000 number might actually be a subset of total number of users, since quite a few folks were using Google Talk either as part of their iChat or were using other clients such as Trillian, or Adium. There was the whole mobile aspect of Google Talk which has become quite the rage with Blackberry users. The usage of Gtalk within GMail has also got some traction. There are several other ways of accessing IM clients these days. New browser-based IM services such as Meebo have become quite popular.
We asked Seth Sternberg, CEO and founder of IM service, Meebo, how many people were using Gtalk on his service. “Jabber accounts account for approx 2-33% of Meebo’s logins. hence, on any given day we probably have 13,000-19,500 jabber logins,” he said. “What percentage of those jabber users are Gtalk users, I don’t really know.”
While, his answers did not lift the fog surrounding the issue, it is becoming obvious that in this era of mash-ups and web-based services, it is hard to get an accurate handle on traffic and other web metrics. The installed software can only be seen as a part of the big picture.
Now we wait till tomorrow morning to get some clarity!
Google Talk – what is it 🙂
But why are you so facinated with the data? Only google admirers and fads use google talk.None of the folks I know in person, are using it, mostly use yahoo IM or msn.
Google was innovative once, not any more, they are just leveraging their past innovation.It has been more than two years ,may be more than that, since they produced any wow product.I think they should stop develop internally these products and buy more 2.0 startups at ealry stage.I am glad they bought google earth from keyhole, did not develop internally.I think google board will slowly start questiong all these failures and stop unncessary bleeding.
Analyzing google talk data is like analyzing goole base data, very very few use it. If you use it, you are one among the very few.
Google Talk works fine for me when I do use it…
I do not need all the Eye Candy that comes with AIM & Yahoo’s & MSM’s and everybody elses Instant Messengers and VOIP…
I want a simple direct way to contact friends without having to look through alot of junk to find them… When I wanna just chat I do not need a “Really Cool Looking Interface with Lot’s of Colors”, I just need a space where I can type my message to my friend and then read their reply…
In fact just making a Simple Phone Call and hearing a voice on the other end is a lot more satisfying… I guess when there is a “Face” on the screen then I may think using these will be a bit more to my liking…
When you enter late in the market, you need to make good impression, else exisitng users will not make a switch, you are left with only brand-admirers or curious adaptors.
It is pity Goolge products went from “wow’ to “me too” in such a short period.
I’m waiting for something big from Google, maybe an AJAX web-enabled version. It appears this first client is a temporary thing until they make a splash with the real thing.
I have to agree wiith Keith, I just want an application that allows me to chat with friends. I don’t need something that allows me to play games, share a whiteboard, etc.
I’m very happy with the google talk product and I hope they don’t bloat it out like yahoo/msn/aim.
IM is tricky… You want to use the same as what your buddies are using.So even if the ajax version comes up(btw,I dont think ajax’ing will make it extraordinary), you will still need to convince your other buddies to switch to gtalk.Not an easy thing.
AJAX is a huge architectural change. You no longer need to download and maintain a desktop client. Google stores everything. You get access anywhere. All you need is a browser. This is the future.
Interop with other services is another issue, but Google appears to be more active in supporting other services. Gizmo and AOL are supposedly to interop. Anyone know if Apple iChat will interop?
GTAlk offers great promise, but I can’t get it to work on the Nokia 770.
Not quite sure why everyone is calling for an AJAX version of Google Talk when it technically already exists within Gmail.
Yes and most people seem unaware that you can use Google Talk with MSN, ICQ, YIM and AIM via Jabber transports.
The reason for the numbers “so low” is because everybody has about five or ten AIM accounts, five yahoo messenger accounts and another five or so MSN messenger accounts. Anyone who has GMail or GTalk only needs one account. So Google has more accurate numbers.