Tonight at approximately 23:00 Google released their well hyped IM client. There have been talks on and off of this for the past few months and the shadows have now been lifted. As the post that it had been released, which spread on Digg.com like bums on a broken money jar, I too went to
http://talk.google.com and downloaded the beta and excitedly installed it. I messed around with it, along with my friend using the VOIP capabilities.
My basic conclusion of Google Talk is thus:
- Nice. Not thrilling, but nice.
- Google Talk is not meant to be a competitor to AIM. Why not? Because average Joe Schmoe need to have their emoticons and profiles. Hell, I think that they'd miss all the viruses!
- Google Talk supports Google Mail... ... ... and... ... ... well that's it. If one doesn't have a Gmail account, there's not really a big point.
- I was not able to use another Jabber client to connect, so that I can link my accounts. AIM/MSN/Yahoo/Google.
- The interface is fantastic; just check it out!!
Personally, I quickly uninstalled it and continued to use my AIM and Skype; however, I do look forward to Google Talk's future possibilities.
