Is Google preparing to launch a voice-over-IP service?

This rather interesting blog post from Search Engine Watch accumulates some evidence that Google could be gearing up to launch an Internet telephone service. What is the investment community to make of it?

Like all rumors, there may be just a shred or a whole pile of truth to this. But if Google is entering the Voice-over-IP market (VoIP) to potentially compete with services such as Vonage (Blogging Stocks' Tom Taulli posts about its IPO here) or eBay's Skype, investors should pay close attention.

It has been in the news recently that Google plans to implement "click to call" features in its AdWords program. That would allow potential customers to click to actually call a Google AdWords advertiser instead of going straight to a website. That would improve conversions I would think. Perhaps Google will be adding VoIP capabilities to its Google Talk instant messaging service -- which has yet to gain any ground against competitors like Yahoo! Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger.

Perhaps Google plans to actually launch a VoIP service to compete with established players in the marketplace? This seems less plausible (where's the revenue model). But don't put it past Google. It's known for launching services that aren't monetized yet and then figuring out a way to generate revenue. Wait, where has that happened outside the search arena for Google? It hasn't yet -- but that hasn't stopped Google from launching services left and right.