overyourhead

Google Talk...

Google made a late entry into the instant messaging market yesterday with the launch of Google Talk, an IM service that allows users to place free phone calls over a net connection to other people signed into the service. Google Talk, released as a beta, requires a Gmail username and password. It works with Jabber-compatible Instant Messaging client (such as Apple's iChat, Trillian or GAIM). Although that represents a stand towards interoperability in practical terms it doesn't mean that much since none of the big three IM clients (MSN, Yahoo! and AOL) support the feature. I'll be having a play with it but currently Google Talk is missing any sort of search, doesn't save conversation histories properly, and requires a GMail account... and it doesn't even have smileys :-(

Update: Just did some real world testing connecting with Simon in Sitges comparing Google Talk vs MSN audio - Google Talk comes out top with audio only, but MSN supports simulaneous video, of course, which is nice.