[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #237: New Hangouts

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #237: New Hangouts
July 6th, 2011

<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/google-plus-icon-hangouts.png>Unless 
you've been completely disconnected from the Internet, radio, TV, and 
print media for the past week or so, you've heard about Google+, the new 
social media project that will compete with Facebook. You may not have 
heard much, however, about the group video chat service, called 
Hangouts, that's part of the Google+ project. And even if you have heard 
about Hangouts, you might not know about the technology that runs it - 
but there's a lot going on in the background of Hangouts that could 
finally bring group video meetings into the mainstream. If you've ever 
tried to use current free video chat services for a serious meeting (we 
have), you know that there is room for improvement. Google may have just 
done that.

    * Google+ Hangouts video chat could challenge Skype
      <http://www.pcworld.com/article/234807/google_hangouts_video_chat_could_challenge_skype.html>
      (PCWorld/Brennon Slattery) "Google+ Hangouts can hold 10 people in
      the same video chat room simultaneously. While Skype 5.0 Beta 2
      can do the same, video conferencing on Skype requires a Premium
      membership that ranges from $4.49 to $8.99 per month. Worse yet,
      Skype 5.0 Beta 2 is Windows-only at the moment, whereas Google+
      Hangouts, like Gmail video chat, is browser-based and doesn't
      discriminate against any OS or requires an additional download."
    * Announcing Google+ Hangouts
      <http://juberti.blogspot.com/2011/06/announcing-google-hangouts.html>
      (juberjabber/Justin Uberti) "To support Hangouts, we built an
      all-new standards-based cloud video conferencing platform. This
      platform combines high quality, low latency, and strong security
      with the ease of use of a web application. Through the efficiency
      of this new platform, we're able to deliver a leading video
      conferencing experience at Google scale."
    * The technology behind Google+ Hangouts
      <http://gigaom.com/video/google-hangouts-technology/>
      (GigaOM/Janko Roettgers) "This is where things get really
      interesting: Hangout's cloud-based architecture and its upcoming
      browser integration will eventually make it possible to deliver an
      optimized group video chat experience to a whole range of devices.
      Desktop users will get to view full HD video, users on mobile
      devices will receive optimized streams to deal with bandwidth
      issues. And Google TV users could see Hangouts appear on their TV
      sets sooner than they think, because Google TV comes with a
      full-blown Chrome browser."
    * Google+ Hangouts: the next new virtual interview technology
      <http://www.avidcareerist.com/2011/06/28/google-hangouts-the-next-new-virtual-interview-technology/>
      (AvidCareerist/Donna Svei) "Of greatest interest to job seekers?
      Google+ Hangouts---free instant video conferencing with up to 10
      participants. Expect some recruiters to start scheduling your
      virtual interviews here. And... job hunt clubs are most effective
      with a group of peers. Now you aren't limited to your home town."

*/Techie fact:/*

Hangouts will use the WebRTC <http://www.webrtc.org/> framework for 
realtime communications 
<http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/definition/real-time-communications>, 
an open source project supported by Google, Mozilla, and Opera.
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