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Google Launches 'Talk' Instant Messaging

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Google launched their own IM client today under the name of Google Talk.

The Windows XP/2000 client offers Instant Messanging and Voice over IP services similar to Apple's iChat application.

Google's IM service appears to be based the Jabber open-source standard which allows users to connect with other Jabber-capable clients -- such as iChat, GAIM, Adium, Trillian Pro and Psi.

Google Talk clients however, can't connect with AIM, MSN or Yahoo Messenger clients. PC World posts first impressions of the new IM client. According to the site, the client software is very bare-bones at the moment, but Google is reportedly working with Earthlink and Sippphone to provide compatibility with their voice services.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2005/08/24/google-launches-talk-instant-messaging/
How is this Page 1 "Rumor" news? Anyhow, glad to see Google's in the game. My wife used to work for Google's Chicago office - Mac lovers for sure, even if it take them awhile to get Mac versions of their web apps out. We'll see how all this Google vs. Yahoo vs. MS, etc. shakes out after MS releases Vista.
 
If they're Mac lovers, they should be ashamed of themselves. I'm getting sick of not having Mac-native programs from them.
 
Mac version

You dont need a Mac version. Since its Jabber, iChar under Tiger will do it just fine. I was actually expecting something innovative. This is just an ugly version of iChat with fewer networks and no video.
 
I currently don't have a need for voice-capable chat programs -- text is fine enough.

Besides, if I want to talk that way I use a phone or regular conferencing stuff connected to an almighty :cool: whiteboard.
 
So just how can I connect to this network using Jabber? Just using my Gmail address and login doesn't work. Tips?

EDIT: D'oh! Note to self, read FAQ.
 
Well, I for one, don't mind this at all. Since it is compatible with iChat, I have no problems with it. And, it will just cause more confusion on the windows side of IM'ming, and I consider that a good thing.

In fact, I think that iChat Talk does work over Google Talk Jabber servers, you just can't talk with people that happen to be using Google's client. Big deal.
 
Voice chat

I was messing w/ iChat (using Google Talk as Jabber account) and voice chat worked ... just clicked on the phone icon. Am I missing something here? However, I couldn't get file transfer to work.
 
I find it quite funny that when I click on the help link from the Google Talk site, it takes me to Google Maps help. Huh?
 
Not that I really care all that much -- because I seldom use chat apps at all -- but does anyone have a web page showing which apps are supposed to work with which other apps?

Consumers would be better served if there was at least basic interoperability between these apps. Can you imagine only being about to send email from Outlook to recipients that also use outlook? Call only Verizon numbers from your Verizon mobile?

I'm certainly not denying that many people use chats, but the lack of interoperability is one of the reasons I've never really gotten into it.
 
michaelrjohnson said:
So just how can I connect to this network using Jabber? Just using my Gmail address and login doesn't work. Tips?
Click to expand...

edit: You found the FAQ lol.

When you are done, add me up to try it out if you want

sebastian[dot]t@gmail.com

We should get a macrumors Google talk list going lol
 
The service is working for mac np, just that google doesn't have an official client for mac out yet, but the service works.
 
stridey said:
The service works for Mac. The application doesn't.
Click to expand...

we want the app. google neglects mac users like it's their friggin' job... what's the deal with them?? you'd think with all their resources they'd port things like google earth, gmail notifier, desktop search (not that i'd want it), and google talk to OS X :mad:
 
so whats the point of jabber vs. aim? I hear it's open source, but who cares?

I would say it's a little late in the game. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe 5 years down the road google's services are all more popular then aol's, msn's, and yahoo's. I guess it's better now then never, but I don't see how this is anything useful at the moment. I understand jabber can be run on your own servers, but I am still not sure what the plus's are.
 
FWIW, if you are using iChat and the other person is using iChat there is no difference in your capabilities then using AIM. (You can do video and audio conferences, yes more then one person also in Tiger.)

What you can't do is do video or audio to people using other clients to connect to Google's Jabber server.
 
Ars Technica fired off an article as well. It sounds pretty bare bones to me, furthermore it is strange that they are not supporting arguably the most popular protocols (AIM, etc.).

I guess we'll see where this goes in the future.
 
Doesn't seem too exciting yet, but any competitor to MSN is fine by me :) Google often does very well at the things they attempt: http://maps.google.com comes to mind!

Open universal standards for voice and video would be nice.
 
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