As jeremy announced yesterday Google talk is here and it’s pretty much what we expected. It’s a simple, clean and light IM client for Windows, however, you can connect to is using other IM Clients.
For the moment, I think that it’s mainly trying to compete with Skype in VOIP but I have not yet tested it since I don’t have a Mic at hand.
Now for the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
- it’s light
- it’s simple
- it’s functional
- it has a nice clean look to it and get this, get this… no adds! Hear that MSN?
The Bad:
- Only GMail registered users can use it (But if you invite someone that doesn’t use GMail to use Google Chat they will automatically get an invitation to create a GMail account)
- Even though you can use it on MacOSX and Linux, the complexity of the setup might drive less experienced users away from it (even though each client has a simple follow-through explanation with pictures).
- You can’t transfer files through it, yet
The Ugly:
- No uglies yet, you can’t use your picture as an avatar ;)
Bottom line:
I like it, and the few friends of mine that tried it also did. Even though the prerequisite of having a GMail account might drive some away (some people that we all know that hate registering [or are just too stupid to do it]) but still, it does what’s asked of it except file transfers but I think I can live with that for now, the rest is all great.
To download Google Talk just click on the “Visit Site” link below, however you do need a Gmail account. If you want an invite, I’ll give them while I have them, so feel free to ask in the comments.
MSN Messenger also requires a registration just like ICQ or Yahoo or …
When most of my contacts switched to MSN I signed up for a hotmail account just to switch to MSN and I know lots of people did the same thing.
You still need a gmail account but since there are so many invites and so many users, I don’t think it’s hard to find one
I’ll link to your site on my webpage If you have any invites left =)
Why did they even bother? It offers absolutely no advantages over AIM or MSN Messenger. If they come into an established market, shouldn’t they offer something better than others before expecting them to cross over?
If you need an invite, just e-mail david.phoenix@gmail.com and I will send you one.
Bert: I’ve been using non-hotmail accounts on MSN for a really long time. You can sign up for a Passport with your Yahoo mail account just for kicks.
cliche: Advantages?
1) Google Talk is extremely lightweight. No ads or other forced content from MSN.
2) uses your existing Gmail account. All your contacts are ready to be imported.
3) Gmail alerts, if you don’t already have another program/widget.
3) Fixed usernames. I really hate trying to figure out who’s who on MSN when everyone has extremely long and irrelevant nicknames.
4) Custom status messages. I think AIM/ICQ might have them, but MSN doesn’t.
5) Contact search. Together with the identiable usernames, you’ll always be able to find who you want.
6) and most importantly, Google Talk uses an open IM protocol, Jabber. I kinda trust opensource more than giant corporations with dubious privacy/security standards.
Oops, bad numbering. Anyway, I believe getting a Google Account will instantly give you access to Gmail. No need to go through the hassle of inviting.
Could you send me a Gmail invite? Thank you. joel@jjtone.com
Justin, the advantages you list are things only geeks care about.
-An average person doesn’t care or know about efficient software. These are Windows users!
-An average person doesn’t care or know about open source. These are Windows users!
-Gmail alerts? More people have Hotmail and MSN Messenger have Hotmail alerts, so that’s hardly an advantage.
-Fixed usernames? That’s purely personal preferance.
-Contact serach? Since Messenger7.0 came out with display pictures, I found no problem identifying or finding someone.
-No ads? Google is an ad company. Google talk will have ads if it comes out of beta.
-Custom status messages? You got me there, but this will probably not be enough of a reason for anyone to switch.
Has anyone been able to connect to Google Talk through Miranda IM (using Jabber protocol)? If so, instructions would be great.
well i know what you thinking why switch , well i use skype , msn , yahoo and now gmail talk ,
i think i IM google has is very good light weight , and if they do have adds when it comes out of beta then its just like the others,
I think it blends in well and i love that you can resize it to what ever size you want unlike msn.
im sre they are going t add features like a picture for you avatar and stuff but they are just nice to haves for some peple not every one.
i think google did very good with this one. good luck to them.
if trillian embed gmail i might switch to them but i always found trillian buggy.
well i know what you thinking why switch , well i use skype , msn , yahoo and now gmail talk ,
i think i IM google has is very good light weight , and if they do have adds when it comes out of beta then its just like the others,
I think it blends in well and i love that you can resize it to what ever size you want unlike msn.
im sure they are going to add features like a picture for you avatar and stuff but they are just nice to haves for some peple not every one.
i think google did very good with this one. good luck to them.
if trillian embed gmail i might switch to them but i always found trillian buggy.
I may be linched for this lol…but…. I for one would never chat and/or talk using a service that blatently says they archive everything going through the server. I highly doubt anyone reads gmail messages (since about 99.999999% would be boring as hell i’d imagine) and even less likely that they record the voip sessions, but if any american law enforcement agency wants your email, all they have to do is ask. Even for people outside the US (like me) that’s just nasty for privacy.
Brad: if you don’t do anything wrong, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Just something my mother would say.
cliche: well, I assume all of us here _are_ indeed geeks, so I see those points as relevant. As for non-geeks, I can imagine Gmail + Google Talk being a good setup for my grandparents. The icons are so simple – 1 for mail and 1 for voice. I could even throw in Google Desktop for feeds, if they wish to read news online. And the gdTunes plugin provides a simple interface for controlling iTunes.
It’s funny that nobody mentioned that before (I’m I dumb or what?). But as google do this an an open source project, what if a smart ass was including a cross platform compability with msn ICQ AIM yahoo and so on, just as they did in Miranda? If I was google and I wanted to take over the place of instant messenging, I’d do a trillian killer, not a msn or skype killer. But as trillian as been sued by AOL for connecting to its network, it’s need to be… well.. a bit “out of control” => open source..
Everybody is waiting for that, you just have to read the forums everywhere, they all complain that it’s completely stupid to have 4 or 5 instant messengers at the same time!
sfe every1 dis is keiran duz any1 no how 2 get msn messenger on ur psp?
Hi :D
Google Talk is also compatible with Earthlinks chatting client, MindSpring.
I am very impressed how you can build webpages!
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Good thing about gtalk is that it is small in size and works faster
i want to you add.