There’s lots of instant messaging news today. Google isn’t letting the fact that it has less than 1% market share and only 44,000 people used its Google Talk client last month get it down. Tonight they’ve released three significant new features to the product – file transfers, voicemail and music status. Information on all of these features is here.
File Transfers
Files and folders can be sent to Google Talk friends by clicking the “send file” button. There are no limits on file sizes or type, and the recipient will see a preview of the image within the chat session. Both users must be using the actual Google Talk client, however, for this feature to work. See left image below.
Voicemail
Voicemails can now be left for friends who do not answer calls through Google Talk. Unlike File Transfers above, this feature does not require that the friend use the Google Talk client. In that case, they’ll receive an email with the message attached as an audio file. Voicemails can be up to 10 minutes long, and messages can be left for people online without calling them directly by clicking the down arrrow from any profile card or chat window. Voicemail will also automatically kick in after 4 rings. See middle image below.
Music Status
If you are listening to music while logged in to Google Talk, you can show your contacts what you are listening to by selecting “show current music track” from your status drop down menu. This is only for “supported music players” but they do not say what players are supported. See far right image below.
Note that the Google Chat client is, ridiculously, available only for Windows machines.
I wouldn’t call it more of a love tap or a gentle nudge, than a swing.
Why can’t they do something ~ to quote the great one “simply great”
typo – I would call it..
Once more, the classic TenchCrunch anti-Google attitude.
Seriously, guys, you should seek help for your googlephobie…
I’ll try to be better. I promise. It’s just that we’re surrounded by Google arrogance here in silicon valley..and it gets to us. Plus, in this case, I think I’m pointing out some nice features. I could have ripped on Google for never releasing a Mac client, but I didn’t, did I?
Why do you report about such a inferiror product?
TanNg – because I love Google so much.
These back-to-back comments, no. 3 and no. 5, define my life.
I guess that I live far enough from Silicon Valley to don’t perceive that Google arrogance. I judge Google only in based of their products, and I happen to find them interesting enough.
IMHO, Techcrunch shows an anti-Google bias that begins to be almost ridiculous. But it is my opinion only, and maybe in the Silicon Valley things are different.
And I don’t find GoogleTalk an inferior product. For one, it is a open standard product, and in that it’s better than MSN or Y!. And its easy integration with the mail interface of gmail make it a very useful tool. That’s also a new concept that MSN or Y! could imitate.
Mike: Yeah, you should have ripped in to them for not releasing a Mac client. I mean, someone at Google has to be able to use their 20% time to work on this. Get X number of people putting in their 20% and you’ll have a Mac client in no time.
I just finished watching a documentary on Google and I saw plenty of people using Mac notebooks there.
Yahoo Music Engine is supported. I think this is a nice simple update, for a nice simple chat client.
Seems kind of funny how, when GTalk came out, everyone loved that it used the Jabber network. That there may be a possibility that this could mean that other IM companies would then support Jabber and everyone would be happily talking to one another.
Now with Yahoo! and MSN Messengers talking it sort of leaves GTalk out in the cold. I mean, most people are either on Yahoo! or MSN Messengers, and now that they can talk … why bother with GTalk? I tried GTalk, but no one else was on it… so I gave up with it. I only used it now and then from within GMail, not their standalone client.
LostInBrittany – I use Google Talk with Adium on my Mac, and used it frequently on my PC before I switched. I agree that the integration of chat into gmail is awesome.
I’ve written postive posts on Google in the past (see my post on Google Finance – http://www.tech...-of-flash-ajax/ and, um, wait, that other thing).
But really, Picasa is just sad (see sharpcast for the proper way to do this), and Google Checkout, which I just had to rip out of a new product we are launching, is an abomination. More on that later.
I can go on, but I won’t.
Diego – you’re right, I’m adding the Mac stuff into the post.
Ah yes, I see, so we should be happy because be seem to pass from two proprietary dominant formats to only one dominant proprietary format ?
By making their formats sort-of-compatible, Y! et MS seek only to transform their duo-pole in a monopole, it is not an opening movement, but a closing one.
IMHO, of course…
I’m going to bed. 4:30 am here. You guys figure it out.
Voicemails are cool, but the other two features are just catching up the the other services. Still, I don’t see how any of this is going to drive users to GTalk.
Imagine if companies like MS/Y! implemented e-mail the same way that they currently implement IM?
Can you imagine what life would be, if we couldn’t send e-mails to each other? We take it for granted because its an open protocol, RFC 821 SMTP.
Similarly, we should demand that Microsoft, Yahoo! treats IM in the same way, there is an open standard, RFC 3920, XMPP.
So we should be greatful that companies like Apple and Google are doing something about it…
make the change, people will follow, and remind them Jabber is open.
Diego, reading your comment it seems we should be happy because Y! et MS seem to pass from two proprietary dominant formats to only one dominant proprietary format ?
By making their formats sort-of-compatible, Y! et MS seek only to transform their duo-pole in a monopole, it is not an opening movement, but a closing one.
IMHO, of course…
LostInBrittany: I’m not necessarily happy about it, nor should anyone be. But hey, that’s life at the moment. It’s just a fact that these two are the services with the largest number of people, hence Y! and MSN talking makes it an easier choice as to which IM service you go with. Either Y! or MSN and you’re talking to most people.
All I was saying was that when looking for an IM service, it’s just a lot easier now to go eith one of the big two. It’s just numbers.
Michael – SharpCast, in my opinion, doesn’t get it right. The interface is pretty good, and I like the automatic backups, but what I really want is the ability to have it create folders by date (like Adobe Lightroom, though Lightroom doesn’t have enough options for this…), and the ability to upload photos to a photo developer like Snapfish or Shutterfly (like Picasa). Lightroom also lacks the photo developer upload, and Picasa has a clunkier interface, and their “media detector” is a resource hog. So, nobody has really gotten it right that I’ve seen.
More on topic, I like the idea of Google Talk, but nobody else I know uses it, so I use MSN/AIM. Voicemail seems like a useless feature, though. Why not just have the option to send an email. Why clog up people’s inboxes with voice recordings? Email is a much better medium for asynchronous communication, as with voice mails, if you miss an important part, you’ve got to replay the whole thing.
What about client for Linux, too?
Check this out too: http://ruscoe.n...les-sandbox.asp
Go East,Go West Only Google is the best…
google’s quality is unmatched….
Looking forward for more products from Google..
I have said it before… TechCrunch is ruining its reputation by posting such biased rants.
Why the need for a Mac client? Gtalk works with iChat.
Still no conference feature? sigh…
You think the above post exhibits bias? That’s ridicously stupid. If anything, YOU are showing bias by painting bias where there is none. The OP is a perfectly objective look at the new features of Google Talk.
To follow on from Crozet, not only does it work with iChat, it also works with Adium – and why release a Linux client when GTalk works well with Gaim and Psi.
At least Google really are trying to use XMPP unlike MS who seem to think (as always) that anything not invented by them wasn’t worth using. Microsoft and Yahoo interoperating was *never* about the technology, Jabber would have let them share a federated service YEARS AGO.
On the issue of a Mac client, I think we’re missing the point.
Google has no real incentive to create a Google-branded client for the Mac when there are already some really great Mac IM clients out there that work great with their service. This argument comes up frequently and what people are missing is that it’s not about being egalitarian and never releasing anything on one platform that is not yet on the other.
Google, like many other companies, focus on Windows desktop application areas where there is an opening. IM clients on Windows are bloated and filled with ads. Desktop search on Windows sucked as well. Both of those areas are pretty well filled on the Mac, so asking for Google to create their own branded client is just asking for one more half-baked attempt at Mac software by a major vendor (harrumph, WiMP for Mac, Messenger for Mac, harrumph).
What, Google don’t need techcrunch pumping their hot air balloon up? They have their own pumps, but at least they don’t suck too.
Is there a place you can currently download this new client, or is it not released? I’ve tried telling the gtalk client to update, and download it directly from their site. However, neither the voice mail feature nor the file transfer feature work.
I’m running 1.0.0.92.
“Is there a place you can currently download this new client, or is it not released? I’ve tried telling the gtalk client to update, and download it directly from their site. However, neither the voice mail feature nor the file transfer feature work.
I’m running 1.0.0.92. ”
Same problem here!
Seens that they haven’t updated the download link.
they haven’t update the download link, or the “What’s New” page on the talk.google.com website to reflect any of this information.
http://desktop....tup-testing.exe
There you go, thats the link people.
I think enough people have mentioned this already, so I will keep it short. My wife uses two OS’ .. OS-X on her laptop and Linux on her work desktop, and our chatting is exclusively using google chat, either via the integrated gmail client, or adium. The same holds true for 80% of my google “chatosphere”
lol.. “meep~~”
I understand that there are similar and compatible messengers available on the mac, but with these new features which are only available on google talk they are effectively limiting mac and linux users to the basic feature set.
No mac client, no AIM/YIM/MSN integration, no digg… oops wrong site.
Michael, Picasa is sad? On your tip, I signed up for and downloaded the sharpcast client. I think you and I must be looking for different things…
Sharpcast doesn’t let you do any editing beyond rotating the image, as far as I can see. Picasa lets me adjust, correct and edit any photo to my heart’s content, with editing features and filters I’ve only ever seen in programs like Photoshop Elements and higher. It also lets me instantly upload a photo to my blog, order prints from pretty much any provider, and the beta features web albums. My mother and my sister (both pretty non-technical people) now have their own photoblogs and use all these Picasa features with ease.
I’m always on the lookout for something better (especially free things!), but I haven’t found something to beat Picasa yet, at least in the areas that interest me.
If anyone knows of something I should try, please let me know!
I’m at the point of being a Google “moderate” right now… down from about an 85% zealot a year ago. Still love Gmail and its built-in chat!
-Mark
Well, I guess its just a desperate attempt by Google to catch up with Yahoo’s latest IM release.
The only differentiator is unlimited file share feature. Yahoo’s IM file sharing offers only 1 GB of file size, while Google claims are unlimited!!
My review on Google’s GTalk here
sinha
> It’s just that we’re surrounded by Google arrogance
> here in silicon valley..and it gets to us.
Google Talk is developed in Kirkland, a suburb of Redmond, WA. It’s not a Valley thing.
Suresh,
Seems strange to give kudos to Apple and Google for “doing something about it” when they’re not market leaders in IM. If they were, it seems likely they would do things differently. The only way to make any significant strides in this market now is to go open, so it seems a matter of necessity not choice. I think both Apple and Google make great products, but I wouldn’t necessary put them on a pedestal as far as serving the public good. They are big, publicly owned companies at the end of the day,…
Albert
I don’t use GTalk because the interface is absolute crap, and nobody else is on it.
Plain and simple, right up front for ya.
who is “ya”? Is “absolute crap” a technical term? – I don’t get it. I need something more simple and up front.
Hi guys,
This is Gibu Thomas, the CEO of Sharpcast. I appreciate everyone’s comments about Sharpcast Photos. Clearly, we are a work in progress. Right now, I hope you look at it is as a sneak preview into a future where you have a single virtual view of your workspace regardless of what device you are on and regardless of whether you are online or offline where you don’t ever have to do the same thing twice. You could also look at it as a sneak preview to a future where you have one-stop solutions that meets all your data management needs, whether it is easy sharing, transparent backup, instant syncing, or anywhere-access as opposed to multiple point solutions that solve parts of the puzzle.
We have work to do to fill out the gaps in our Photos product, whether it is adding editing and printing features or opening up our APIs to interoperate with other services. But, we will get there and your feedback is certainly important in that process.
I appreciate everyone’s comments and patience as we make our photo solution better and extend the Sharpcast experience to other data types. If you have specific thoughts or questions, you are welcome to email me at gthomas [at] sharpcast [dot] com.
Cheers,
Gibu Thomas
CEO, Sharpcast
So far, the music status works with iTunes and Winamp.
Voicemail is fun, but more a novelty than a practical feature. I suppose long-distance loved ones might enjoy getting a surprise voice message from you more so than an email. I’ll use it occasionally, I guess.
I use AIM and Yahoo primarily. Are they dominant in the marketplace? Yes.
If I went Google-Talk-only, would I lose the ability to talk to most of my contacts? Yes.
If Y!/MSN/AIM suddenly all supported an open standard like Jabber, would I ditch their clients and use Google Talk? Definitely.
http://www.goog...py?answer=44269 – a list of the supported players: * iTunes
* Windows Media Player
* Winamp
* Yahoo Music Engine
Why would I want a Mac client when I can talk to GTalkers on iChat or Adium? Voice chat, that’s why. GTalk has very good voice chat quality and I’d like to chat to people from my Mac. And avoid the P2P bandwidth hog that is Skype.
Google needs to integrate with the MSN and Yahoo! networks if it is going to succeed long-term, they don’t have any “ground-breaking” features in my honest opinion. I just saw ‘file-sharing’ as a feature today, hello ICQ pre-Y2K, MSN for the past 5 years. If they can get some crazy VoIP stuff going that I can use a Wi-Fi handset in my house to call people, now that would be cool.
GTalk will one day perhaps be interoperatible with AIM, though I still use Gtalk/Gchat on a day to day basis. Really, that is the only instant messaging client I need. Simple and clean.
1
Then again, I hate Yahoo
“Note that the Google Chat client is, ridiculously, available only for Windows machines.”
Note also that Yahoo’s chat client for Mac is crappy – that is why Adium is a more popular choice. What’s the use of having a chat client for Mac if nobody’s using it?