Google's Talk IM Service

In the past months, there has been alot of talk of Google offering an IM service. There rumors became stronger when people noticed that google had a subdomain set up (talk.google.com) and also a jabber server. Well today is for certain, Google is enetering the IM war to square off against AIM, Skype, MSN Yahoo etc. Good thing is that it works with a Jabber server, so connecting to the network is pretty easy should you have a Jabber compatible IM client (iChat, Adium, Trillian i believe as well) and a gmail address. What you need is the following settings, if you want to join now, and dont want to wait for the Google talk client (more on that later).

• Jabber Id: yourname@gmail.com


• Password:your_gmail_password



• Server: talk.google.com Port:5223


• Location: Up to you

You should connect no problem and be ready to add people to your buddy list by typing their gmail address. Neat feature, whoever you add to your contact list, is added to your gmail's contact list.

Of course, Google had a client ready as well, which just has been released at 00:19 Argie time. This client, offers IM capabilities as well as VoIP capabilities. Skype killer? Too early to tell, but we all know how Google revolutionized free email with their Gmail service. The bad, well its just for Windows currently. Sure you can connect with other clients (as seen on my screenshot) but you are just limited to the IM part, no voice.

Hopefully Google comes with a Mac version soon, if they plan to go against the other services a native client on every platform is a must. Take a look a skype, they offer their client for not just Windows, but Mac, linux, and even PocketPc.

We will see what develops from this, so far it seems promising. If you need a gmail account to join Google talk, I have 50 invites leave a comment, let me know. Its a gmail-invite fest.