Wednesday (08/24/05)
So I tried out Google Talk… 9:52 am
I downloaded Google Talk this morning to give it a spin, and I’m still trying to decide whether I’m a fan of it or not.
It’s extremely simple, no clutter, and no ads (surprise there, I was half-expecting to ads displayed that are relevant to the conversation…).
It’s got a cool search feature that lets you search through your contact list (After all, what kind of Google product would it be if there was no search?)
It “sort of” integrates with Gmail, but not enough to be a ton of use. It has a link to your inbox, pulls your IM contacts from your Gmail contacts, and while instant messaging there’s a link you can click to email the person. It also periodically checks your gmail account to see if you’ve got mail.
Then comes what I assume they named the client after, the “call” feature. When you have an IM window open with somebody you can hit a button to “Talk” them. It “dials” them (you even hear a ring), and they have the choice to answer it or not. If they accept, then you’re in. You can also mute your side, so you can be talking separately to several people by having everybody on mute except to whom you are talking to at the moment.
Overall, it’s a nice program, but it’s extremely minimal and I don’t think it has anything that will win people over from other clients. At least not yet, anyways. They say they are working on more features.
Try it out for yourself (you’ll need a Gmail account): Google Talk
EDIT: Just found another quite cool feature. You can collapse IM windows and stack them into one window, letting you see their s/n and the last message they typed or when they last typed something. Also when a window is collapsed a little green light will blink if they have sent you a message that you haven’t read yet. It will always tell you if somebody is typing by showing a picture of a keyboard in the right of your typing area, and it will also say “[So and So] is typing” in the header bar.
I eat food. I listen to music. I sleep. Sometimes. I drink lots of coffee. I make pretty pictures. I talk to people. I believe in things. I write stuff. I take photographs. I have a laughing addiction. I am human. 
ok, ill bite…. I’ve got it installed… just need someone to talk to
I downloaded Google Talk as a lot of other people did and at first I was really happy with it. It seemed like a simple, no-frills IM program. However, after a while I realised that I actually felt more comfortable using other IM programs. If only for the fact that there is no file transfer functionality. I do like the collapsing and stacking though!
@ Peter: I agree, collapsing and stacking is definately a nice feature. I have also stopped using it, but mostly because I find no use in using it. Why use Google Talk when I can already IM with all the same people through Trillian? Though if I ever had the want to use voice chat, I’d probably use Google Talk because it makes it so incredibly easy.