Google Adds Skype To Google Pack

This news may come as a surprise to most IM analysts who thought Google Talk was a Skype killer in the making.

Google has practically dismissed all such rumours by making Skype a part of the Google Pack. Infact, Skype makes a double appearance in the Google Pack - one as a standalone installer and second as a button on the Google Toolbar that automatically recognize phone numbers and Skype user names on webpages and calls them with one click.

And if we take a more closer look at the descriptions of the two "rival" chat programs on the Google Pack homepage [quoted below], it almost confirms that Google is not competing with Skype in the Voice Chat business - GTalk is mentioned a text chat client while Skype as a voice and video chat program.

Google Talk - Call or send instant messages to your friends for free
Skype - Make free voice and video calls to anyone else on Skype, Call landlines and mobile phones at pretty low rates

The most awaited feature is native connectivity between GTalk and Skype like we have seen in Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live MSN Messenger.