The Google empire has released yet another (Beta) service which this time is an instant messenger network and client Google Talk.
While their standard is to release ground shaking services (GMail, Google Earth, desktop search and more) this time I have yet to feel the rumble.
Google talk is a lean instant messaging (IM) client that supports high quality voice chats. It also notifies the user of any new Gail messages and there is a short cut to send Gail emails. But that’s it!
You have to have a Gail account to be able to use Google Talk. I have plenty invitations to spare so leave a comment if you need one.
Once again the client is Windows only but since Google talk is “built to support industry standards” you can use compatible clients on other operating systems:
OSX – iChat
Linux – GAIM
Windows – Trillian Pro
The “industry standards” is the Jabber/XMPP protocol and it let’s other clients play with Google Talk network in an authorised way.
This one subtle detail that most users will not notice nor understand makes Google Talk special. It is a stab at the established messengers (MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ) to show them how to play fair with Internet users.
Rumours are many in the blogosphere regarding the potential and future of Google Talk. Will it be the preferred client on the future Google Network? Will it allow searching all chat history similar to GMail search? Will it record all voice conversations, and allow searching? What will be the revenue stream(s)?
I just hope that the original Google motto “Don’t be evil-TM” will not be replaced by the new corporate “Must Make Money” motto.
Easter eggs:
Add [email protected] to your buddy list and send it a text message of “play” to play the old school game Hunt the Wumpus.
Create bold text by using * and italics by using underscore (_)
Do you ever worry that Google, the company, is actually run by a sentient evil-super computer bent on destroying humanity?
Let’s not forget that Google’s main goal is an index of ALL the World’s information. IM/VoIP has become a hugely popular tool for corporations to use to communicate official business–easier to have an IM client open with everyone in your department connected than to flash a memo or phone call–so, by offering their own tool and incorporating a feature you mentioned (Gmail like search of conversations), you have, not just an IM client, but a indexable history of business conversations.
Google has yet to fall into the pit of greed, IMHO, but they continue to strive toward their goal of giving access to a varied and frighteningly enormous amount of information.
so the other day i was talking to a quasi-friend of mine about googles valuation and what it portends. basically it *has* to become a heavily diversified media hub if it want’s to live up to expectations. the next warner or whatever. my friend was like, “yeah, i hope it does”. bollox!! google made it’s name as the underdog whipping the multinational conglomerate menace (M$) by being slightly more clever**. now everyone’s saying woo-hoo, i like them and hope hope they rule the world?!?”&*?£?#@?*#!!
all they seem to do these days is banwagonesque and/or games (earth, world). their only decent asset is groups, and it was aquired….
a bunch of geniuses? yes. for getting all those interns to churn out a bunch of search-derivatives devoid of any real innovation.
btw: i use google constantly. guess i’m bandwagonesque.
** making a simple site right when people were realizing complexity sux. no really.