Search engine Google has launched its own instant messaging system, Google Talk, marking its expansion into voice communications.
Google Talk goes beyond text-based instant messaging, using a computer keyboard to let users hold voice conversations with other computer users.
A combined computer text and voice-calling service puts Google Talk in competition with a similar service pioneered by Skype, which has attracted tens of millions of users, especially in Europe, to its own service.
The product push also comes as rivals Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and Time Warner's AOL are all upgrading existing instant messaging systems and expanding into internet phone-calling services of their own.
Recent moves by Google to expand beyond search into web-based communications have prompted conflicting speculation over the company's intentions.
A $4 billion secondary offering of Google stock last week, together with $3 billion in cash on hand, has fueled debate among investors and web pundits over whether Google is content to build its own technologies or is getting set to acquire.
