Report: A Google Executive's Son Apparently Prefers Zoom

In the age of remote work and interconnectivity across the world, videoconferencing solutions are becoming essential to organizations.

Platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, GoToMeeting, BlueJeans and others were already becoming increasingly popular before workers were forced to work from their homes due to COVID-19.

However, Zoom has become a general term for video chatting during this crisis, regardless of what platform you’re using.

According to Business Insider, Zoom is the software of choice, with its daily users up 50% from the beginning of April and the company boasting 300 million active daily users.

That growth is in spite of privacy and security issues that have forced some organizations like government entities and schools to ban the use of the platform.

Now, companies like Google and Facebook are upping their game to try to take some market share away from Zoom, but that is apparently not going too well for Google, according to a recent New York Times article.

Yet Zoom may already be too ingrained for Silicon Valley’s giants to dislodge.

Late last month, Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, held a videoconference with thousands of the search giant’s employees using Google Meet, three people who attended the call said. During the session, one employee asked why Zoom was reaping the biggest benefits even though Google had long offered Meet.

Mr. Schindler tried placating the engineer’s concerns, the people said. Then his young son stumbled into view of the camera and asked if his father was talking to his co-workers on Zoom. Mr. Schindler tried correcting him, but the boy went on to say how much he and his friends loved using Zoom.

Yikes, but we get it. Zoom was already a popular choice before the lockdown due to its relative ease of use and features. However, Google has taken steps to improve the user experience, like adding noise cancellation and grid view and better interoperability with Gmail.

For whatever reason, the popular business collaboration platform is very popular for consumer use as well. However, it is hardly the only platform out there and it is currently going through a bit of a rebuild as the company responds to those security concerns.

If your organization hasn’t yet settled on a platform, do your research and see which platform works best for you.

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