Google Talk

[jducoeur]

For those who are also on it -- as usual, my job implies that I run every major IM client, so I've installed Google Talk on the theory that it will eventually be "major". My login there is my usual online handle, at gmail. (Yes, I have a gmail account -- I don't use it a lot, but that's because it's only one of a dozen email accounts.)

Initial impression: the UI is very simple and spartan in the usual Google style. The feature list is pretty small so far, although VOIP is front and center. They seem to be very strongly focusing on being standards-compliant, and brag about working with a number of the common clients and a lot of different standards right off the bat.

Nothing terribly remarkable initially, but I suspect that this will be most important as the common entree into "Google on the Desktop". It already has a gmail notifier built in, and I'd be very surprised if they don't start adding other Google-related features fairly quickly. The notion of the "Google account" is becoming more powerful by the day -- they are adding a lot more features for people who give them an identity...

Comments

[adespota.livejournal.com]

Does it act like Trillian, allowing you to message people on other programs?

[jducoeur]

Haven't tried, although the answer is probably yes for the well-behaved systems. They definitely say that it works the other way around -- that you can use Trillian as a front end for gTalk...