Google Talk, and GMail finally goes public!
So, it’s been rumored for damn near forever that Google was working on an instant messenger client. Turns out that it wasn’t just a rumor. Today, Google made a couple fo big announcements:
First off, GMail is no longer invite-only. Now anyone can go and sign up for a GMail account without having to be invited first.. of course, pretty much everyone has a GMail account these days anyone.. but those 3 people who still didn’t have one? Yeah, they can get one too now.
The other, even bigger announcement is Google Talk. It’s a new IM client that ties perfectly into GMail and provides IM and voice chat services in a clean, simple, Google-esque interface. The client is tiny (900 KB), and the install is lightning-quick.
The guys over at the Download Squad have a review up of it, mostly positive. Go check it out here, but here’s some choice quotes:
Clicking on a friend in your buddy list will open an IM window for that person, and clicking on the phone icon to the right of their name will start a voice session. The buddy list allows you to rename contacts and tweak other settings, like whether Gmail-only contacts are shown. When you have multiple IM windows open, they show up in a neat sliding interface which you can dock to the buddy list, “roll up,” or tear away. The whole affair is the picture of simplicity and intuitiveness we’ve come to expect of Google, and is downright attractive to boot.
According to our friends at Google, there’s a lot in store for Google Talk. Google is keenly interested in keeping the protocol open, and in fact you can access Google Talk’s servers with any Jabber-compatible client like Trillian, Gaim, Adium X, and iChat. (If you have one of these, I’m told you can connect using server talk.google.com and port 5222.) Google tells us that SIP support is coming soon and are in talks with Skype, AOL, and Yahoo! concerning interoperability.
Another big feature they’re working on is “joint search,” which would allow two or more Google Talk buddies using Google and surfing the web together. This would be a natural segue to the fabled Google Browser, but there is as yet no confirmation from Google.
Google also tells us that they don’t yet have solid plans on making money with the service, but plan on using it to drive users to Gmail.
Mmmm.. sexay. Voice chat, interop with SIP, Skype, Jabber, etc. I’m really looking forward to that “joint search” feature too. Go get your copy at talk.google.com, and then invite me: katsushiro ( at ) gmail.com
August 26th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
The only problem I have with Google Talk so far is that in voice comms you are constantly transmiting, there is not hotkey for turning the mic on and off. That takes up a lot of bandwidth and causes the call to be interrupted every now and then, a simple togle key for the mic would solve that problem and you could have conversations interruption free.