Cloud Telephony Experiments: Google's approach to business communication
Google has been making silent moves in the business communication space. Google has mostly lost the instant messaging wars. But it does not want to lose the business communication war. WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have been making their own moves to enable businesses to reach their customers through their channels. Its all about who has control over the communication channels. Especially communication which leads to business. That's where the money is.
Currently, Google is the king of search and most online transactions start with a Google search. FB, Amazon, Apple and others want to change that. They want the search to start on their properties. And they have started making the moves. WhatsApp business allows small businesses to conduct their transactions on WhatsApp. FB and Instagram have long supported small businesses to manage their business on their channels. Apple has also made some nice moves with Apple business chat. They have integrated a whole shopping experience along with payments on their iMessage interface.
Google has come up with a suite of business communication tools. In this blogpost I will go over the different products and try to make sense of the approach by Google. As usual, when it comes to Google, the products are all around the place and we never know when some of these products may be cut. But lets look at the products and their features while they are there.
