Fans Petition Google Over Skype-Killer

While that release is a Web-based program to let users route calls to home, work and mobile phones through a special number from Google, TechCrunch has tantalised users for months with the idea that the company is building a desktop client of the software.

Gizmo5, which Google had used to enable users to connect calls from desktop to desktop and desktop to phone, is an alternative to the popular Skype VOIP service, which boasts almost 500 million users. In an interview with eWEEK about the broad availability of Google Voice, Google Voice Product Manager Vincent Paquet declined to say how Google was using the Gizmo5 assets it acquired.

“We designed Google Voice to be endpoint-agnostic and we certainly want it to be accessible from any type of endpoint, not just phones,” Paquet told eWEEK on 21 June. “The direction in which we are going to keep working is to use the Web, which is probably the best UI there is in the world, to give you more control and personalisation over your communications.”

People who desire a desktop VOIP client for Google Voice may navigate to giveusgvdesktop.com. The petition, launched on 2 July, appears poorly timed given the Independence Day holiday in the U.S.