Tech Shout!

Google plans to incorporate XMPP protocol (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) for its instant messaging and Internet telephony services which is a standard under the control of an open-source foundation.

XMPP is an XML based protocol for passing instant messaging and presence information among servers. The protocol lies is under the Jabber Software Foundation.

Google mentions on its Web site that the company will take an “open federation” approach to instant messaging and Internet telephony, which means Google’s instant messaging and Internet telephony users on its networks can communicate with anyone on a system supporting XMPP.

Google said that by doing so it plans to move the industry one step closer to making IM and Internet voice calling as ubiquitous as email. XMPP is currently supported by Earthlink, Gizmo Project, Tiscali, Netease, Chikka, MediaRing, and “thousands of other ISPs, universities, corporations and individual users.

Google and America Online Inc., which operates the largest IM network in the United States, have partnered to allow cross-communication. The agreement was part of Google’s deal late last year to invest $1 billion in AOL, which is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

In the second quarter of 2006, Google’s competitors Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc plan to let its IM subscribers communicate across their IM and VoIP networks.