I just got word that Denver-based Gtalkr shut down yesterday and the founders, brothers Wes and Dudley Carr, have taken jobs at Google.

Gtalkr was a really cool Flash desktop/homepage tool that integrated gmail, gtalk and Yahoo maps (Yahoo has a Flash API, Google doesn’t). It launched in November 2005 and had a significant feature update in February. I’m sad to see it go, Gtalkr was one of my favorite apps.

I’ve pinged Wes Carr for the details. The last I heard from him he was closing an angel round of financing. Things obviously changed.

Update: I just spoke with Wes Carr, one of the founders. Wes was able to answer only some of my questions. In answer to “were you acquired?” he said “no comment, I cannot comment on that” which tell me that yes, they were acquired. Wes and Dudley will be moving to the Kirland, WA Google office within two weeks, both have accepted jobs as engineers. Wes also said that “they were very happy with the outcome”.

Wes had clearly been instructed by Google on what exactly he could and could not say. Again, that tells me that an acquisition took place – if it hadn’t, there would not have been those restrictions.

Colorado-based Gtalkr originally launched in November 2005 as a Flash based way to access Google Talk, Gmail and Yahoo maps from a website. I drew comparisons to Meebo as well as the Ajax home page crowd (my current list is here).

Gtalkr released a ton of new functionality today. First of all, Gtalkr is now extensible, so third parties can easily create and release their own widgets. If Gtalkr becomes more popular, we’ll start to see a lot of these.

The other new functionality includes:

• YouTube integration: You can search for videos and play them right on the Gtalkr site
• Flickr integration: search for any user or tag on Flickr and show a slideshow of pictures on the site
• Additional Flickr stuff: Your gmail contacts now show a Flickr icon automatically. Just click on the flickr icon next to a name and see their pictures. This is a really clever use of the Flickr API, which allows applications to search for users via an email address.
• System tray notifier: download a small client and get email and instant messenger notifications even when you are off Gtalkr
• Whole page scroll: In the original release Gtalkr tried to fit all content into the viewable area (A flash issue); now the page is scrollable.

RSS feeds can also be integrated, and I really like the ability to simply drag the box to make it show more or fewer posts for a given feed. Any item in an RSS box can also be dragged into an IM window to send to a friend.

And this isn’t all. Gtalkr is also integrating AIM into the site within a couple of weeks, and has a number of other great features coming as well which they are asking not be blogged about yet.

Gtalkr is a two man team, created by brothers Wes and Dudley Carr.

Gtalkr, a flash-based website to access Google’s Gtalk, launched yesterday. It allows you to access your Gtalk instant messaging account without a client, from any computer.

Comparisons will inevitably be drawn to Meebo, a similar service, although built on Ajax, that allows users to access a variety of instant messaging services (including gtalk). I wrote about Meebo back in September, and the passionate user comments to that post illustrate the popularity of these services.

Gtalkr is taking a different approach by focusing just on Gtalk, and adding in additional features to, I assume, get users to use it more as a home page or dashboard. Gmail emails are pulled in as well as Yahoo maps (Google maps doesn’t have a flash API, Yahoo does). Gtalkr also plans on pulling in addtiional services, such as del.icio.us and flickr. Independent Flash developers can create these extensions as well.

It’s a useful tool, and like most flash applications I see, very well designed. It does not support gtalk voice (just text IM), and a few bugs are being worked out. See Brian Benzinger and Om Malik for more.