Why Is CNET Trying To Invent A Google VoIP Story?

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

from the give-it-a-rest dept

Earlier this year, almost single-handedly, CNET took a Google job posting and jumped to all sorts of conclusions about how Google was planning a VoIP offering — without one shred of actual evidence. Other news sites went even further, but it was CNET that started the rumor with very little to go on. While that rumor finally died out, it looks like CNET can’t get enough of the silly speculation business, and has resurrected the rumor based on nothing more than the fact that there were some Google employees at VON — including the fact that one Google employee is (gasp!) a personal friend of Jeff Pulver, who created and runs VON. I’m fairly friendly with Jeff myself (we have some close friends in common, and I tend to stop by his office when I’m in NY) and while I’m not at this VON, I’ve certainly gone to VONs in the past. Does this mean that Techdirt is starting a VoIP play? Of course not. So why does CNET think that because Google (a major company with lots of interests) sends some folks to VON (a major conference with plenty of interesting things happening) that they’re obviously getting into the VoIP business? Jeff is calling CNET the National Enquirer of VoIP for this story, and notes that much of it seems to be based on the fact that, at the conference, he sat at the same lunch table as his friend who works at Google.