Russell Shaw at ZDNet’s IP Telephony blog, writes that:

I for one, see the reasoning why Google seems to be more intent on marketing a mobile Google phone with searchable listings rather than concentrating on making its GoogleTalk more competitive as a PC-to-PSTN calling service.

It’s because search is what Google does best, not talk.

Shaw argues that Google isn’t interested in turning Google Talk into a competitor to VoIP services like Skype or Vonage – landline replacements.  He’s probably right.

Google has a history of launching products and services alongside its search engine – Gmail, Google Earth, Blogger – but at the end of the day, Google is primarily a search engine.  Those other features are nice to have and we’re happy to use them, but Google isn’t trying to turn them into major revenue streams – it’s still in the business of search, or, more specifically, selling advertisements to searchers.

So will we see more expansion of GoogleTalk in the near future?  We say no.  What do you think?