The upgrades that Google have been testing to their IM/VOIP client, Google Talk, officially launched today. They include easy file transfer, voicemail and “music status”, which tells your friends what you are listening to. Most of these features require actual use of the Google Talk client (v. access via Jabber), which is only available for Windows machines.
I’m not going to say this is boring stuff (I’ll let Ben Metcalfe do that for me), and I’m not even going to begin to discuss the pitiful user numbers that Google has for their IM service. Instead, I’ll mention something interesting I saw in CNET’s writeup on this. Mike Jazayeri, Google Talk’s product manager, told CNET that Google and AOL will make their chat services interoperable in the future, to counter the Yahoo-Microsoft parallel partnership. This was ll part of the $1 billion investment deal Google did with AOL last year, but I had forgotten all about it.
Simply by reading the rss feed I knew that it was Michael and not Marshall who has written this article, the googlephobie factor was too clear…
I hate to say it, but most of the content we’re seeing lately in TC is boring stuff anyway. Is reading this blog really becoming a bad habit? I don’t know, only time will tell, but I really hope the content quality gets better because I like TC.
it was precised in tcf at the time
I do prefer google talk over the other chat methods because I can run it without downloading anything (although meebo kinda makes that a moot point) and the chat logs get sent to my gmail where I can search them easily. I dont think I have ever installed the client.
Mike, have you tried the photo sharing? That’s sweet UI design right there.
MSN’s client is too “busy”, and while Meebo is good, the new features for Gtalk are excellent. Unlimited size file transfer can really be handy. Hopefully they interop on those features with iChat and Trillian very soon.
My favorite feature of google talk is that it’s Jabber, so it interoperates with the open network of jabber servers, so I have easy access to my friends on google talk while maintaining my own server. So, are there numbers that pitiful when they can interoperate with the entire network?
Give Google time. With the cash they’ve got, they can afford to innovate and focus on user numbers later. Their software is supreme — easier, more intuitive than Skype (though not yet to feature-parity w/ it), according to many I’ve spoken with.
Besides, they’ve planted the seeds.
They have the AOL deal (http://dave.notik.com/node/4) — they’ll federate with AIM.
They have the MySpace deal — what about web-based chat akin to Gmail Chat?
They have the Blackberry deal along with some other devices — and I believe they’ll release a Google device one day soon.
They are automatically adding users to the Talk network via Gmail… as more and more people user their popular e-mail service to talk, it automatically adds these people to each other’s buddy lists, expanding the network.
And they’re on the open XMPP/Jabber client, meaning other clients can choose to connect with it (something we’ll see more of in time), plus they’ll use their developer know-how to energize the developer community by making it easy to connect to the Google Talk network via your own software or web-based real-time chat implementation.
Come on. We already know they do things Google-style.
The closed networks of AIM and MSN have had years to grow, in which there were few alternatives. The increasingly open network of Google Talk is where it’s at — or where it should be anyway.
Fine article that one.
Its beautiful
Lest you forget, Google hired GAIM’s lead developer. Multi-network support is inevitable.
http://slashdot...05/10/13/183238
Receiving party should be GTalker , that kills the deal.They came too late in the market, and most of the folks had IM already. Only google lovers(I used to be one of them,not any more) use google talk. Most of my friends use either yahoo or msn ims.Yahoo’s recent API release made bunch of diferrence and so many cool plugins now.
The image send feature in the chat client is poorly thought out at best.
The client receives and DISPALYS a thumbnail of the image without any interaction on the receivers part. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how open to abuse this is, and what kind of images can start showing up on your desktop, in environments where it is wholly inappropriate for such images to appear.
I actually like G-talk. Like most Google applications, it works really well – especially on the blackberry. Why is it taking so long for this partnership with AOL to benefit chat? It should have been the first point of action when they partnered.
Once it’s compatible with AOL, Google Talk will be a good choice for an AIM client. It’s super light weight and low on memory, the official AIM is bloated and takes up resources like crazy.
This is a great idea. Hopefully, this will enable me to use iChat on the mac to communicate with Gtalk users on the pc without a hitch. Not to mention I can use the light and simple Gtalk client to communicate with AIM users. I look forward to seeing the fruits of this deal.
Good thought.!!! Thanx.
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