Sorry, I've been distracted....

By my new Google Chat integrated into my e-mail account. Seriously, this thing is cool. Google might have out done themselves this time. However cool this product is, will it backfire? The move is clearly an attempt to enter the IM market to compete with Yahoo! and AIM. Google also hopes to enter the VoIP market through their chat interface. My question remains though, will adding chat to their email end up working against the company?

The answer isn't simple. I think they will lose a lot of their email "customers". Adding chat to their gmail application may mean more companies will be banning the gmail site from usage by employees. As an email website only it may have been allowed, but with chat integration it may be seen as too much of a time waster and thus blocked by the corporate powers. However, Google will also see a lot more people using their chat than ever before. The usage statistics will be skewed, since most people viewing their inboxes will show up online regardless of whether they are chatting or not.

All told I think it's a good move by Google.