The Google and Skype affair - part I

One beautiful day late August 2006, Google and Ebay announced their millions dollar deal which promised to see the convergence of two biggest VoIP providers - Skype and Google Talk. For anyone who has been sleeping in the last year, Ebay had taken over Skype at the cost of 2.6 billions (to 4.1 billions). This Google - Ebay deal certainly had more effect on Skype than on Ebay itself.
The promising prospect of that deal sees a global, generic Click-to-call technology to be employed everywhere. Internet users would be able to Click-and-call sellers on Ebay in the matter of seconds instead of having to wait days for a reply email. In the near future, users selling stuff via Google (advertisement) could also be contacted via VoIP. 3 months on, ones could gradually realize the big picture, as the Google-Skype affair started going public:

* Google pack includes Skype: Google pack is (as the name suggest) a collection of "useful", Google-friendly software that come together. They include: Google Earth, Google Desktop, Toolbar, Picassa ... and Skype. Instead of providing its own product which is GoogleTalk, Google chooses to go for Skype ? Have they admitted GoogleTalk's inferiority compared to Skype ? Or it just came as part of the deal ? The former seems less likely. Moreover, this is still a Beta version, Google could easily add GoogleTalk feature in later.

* Google Map with Skype Click-to-call: After Ebay, now it is GoogleMap's turn to include Click-to-Call feature. This feature was realized recently in this blog in Skype journal.
Apparently, it hasn't been widely employed yet; as i didn't find any Click-to-call link when searching for a Chinese take-away shop near Prittchats Road. But it won't be long until the day where i can call my favourite takeaway in one mouse click.

All of these features above make a clear impression that Google is abandoning its own child GoogleTalk and adopting its preference to its former rival, Skype. Or is Googletalk just napping, preparing for something bigger ?