The impact of PC to PC calls and voice in instant messages
| by David Callan Things on the World Wide Web are currently moving at breakneck speed. The word “breakneck” is a good one to use here because usually when things move at the kind of speed that they are moving now, there are plenty of folks who end up breaking their necks, as far as their businesses and business dealings are concerned.It is of course also true that there are others who will “break their
banks” in terms of business success. Still, these will be the minority.
And it has all happened at a time when we were just beginning to analyze the full impact of VOIP (or voice over internet protocol) with companies like Skype which have emerged from nowhere. It now seems that we are headed to a situation where there will be numerous opportunities to talk over the internet to anybody in the world for free. Subscription fees or special software will not even be necessary.
For instance it is now possible to talk to anybody, anywhere in the world, through the instant messaging option of virtually all the leading search engines. You can for instance use Yahoo! which has probably more users than any other free email service in the world to talk to anybody in any remote corner of this world, as long as they have a yahoo email address. And even if they do not have one, getting a yahoo email address takes only a few minutes and it is free.
Where we are headed next is anybody’s guess but it is important to analyze the impact of what has already happened.
International Business Communications at Zero Dollars
The most obvious impact of these new developments is that the world, which has been shrinking at an amazing rate, has just gotten a whole lot smaller. Divided by thousands of kilometers, a business prospect on the other side of the world used to be just a telephone call away, albeit the telephone call was bound to be expensive. Now for nothing (because you are already paying for your internet connection), you can talk to them the whole day if you want.
Many new businesses that were previously just not viable because of the high cost of voice communications are now very workable.
Remember that although Skype and VOIP has been with us for a some time now, the problem has always been how many people actually have access to the particular service that you are using. And more important whether the people you would like to talk to actually use the same service as you do. That bottleneck has now suddenly vanished with the introduction of voice to widely available free instant messaging services like Yahoo!
The Violent Jolt On Mass Media As We Knew It
For some time now, major media houses of the world have worried about their future in an online world where information is widely and easily accessible for free. Nothing has illustrated the possible future of mass media more than the Tsunami tragedy of last year where this amazing story broke in many small obscure blogs, complete with web cam footage, long before any of the big media boys had an inkling of what was going on.
Now with such easy and free access to voice communications online, it seems that the fate of mass media as we always knew it has been sealed. Take a situation where you have an interest about something happening in some remote part of the world. You can now gain all the information you want specific to your particular interest from somebody on the ground and instantly. They do not even have to be seated in front of a PC. Remember that the World Wide Web is now widely accessible through mobile phones and all sorts of other similar hand-held gadgets that can be carried around.
Talk To Your Favorite Web Site
Voice communication with key personnel at your favorite web site is no longer a big deal now, especially if you are on the other coast. This actually opens up a whole dizzying range of new business options and services that many web sites will now be able to provide to their clientele.
Conclusion
Although it may be difficult to predict exactly how things are going to unfold, a number of things are now quite clear. The first is that ease of communication has now become widespread and a country or particular location’s local infrastructure development is now virtually irrelevant. That in itself is a giant step. To sum it all up in a single short sentence, things are never going to be the same again.
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