Google Talk is minimalism at its best

Google Talk is minimalism at its best

People expect a lot of things from Google whenever they launch a new product. Their last few offerings have been phenomenal which includes Picasa, Google Desktop Search, and the recently launched Deskbar. However, Google Talk seems to have disappointed a lot of users who expected a superstar in the application to beat the crap out of MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. However, Google has taken a minimal approach with Google Talk and have adopted Open Source standard Jabber as the base protocol.

The application is worth only a 900 K download which is nothing compared to pretty big downloads for its competing applications. The interface is simple and requires a GMail account. The controversial thing is that the GMail webmail service from Google is still in beta stage and requires an invitation for a new user to join it. this limits the Google Talk application to only those users who either have a GMail account or know someone with a GMail account.

But then, since you can only talk to people who have a GMail account, this should not largely matter. Another disappointing fact is that the Google Talk does not connect to the networks of its competitors in AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. People are still looking towards a stage where a single IM application would let them communicate with people they know. That feeling has resulted in multiple applications like Gaim, Trillian, and Miranda providing these services. Even the recently launched IM application Meetro now supports these third party protocols.

:: Google Talk on Gaim

What is surprising is that Google has left the option to conduct a Google Search from the interface of this application. Both MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger integrate their own searches deeply into the interface of the messenger application. Perhaps, a new release would fix this for Google Talk users. There is also no option for a group chat, which is another major usage for the instant messengers. Google has quite many things to add in the upcoming versions.

What people liked was the basic nature of the application with no bloat in the from of graphical smilies or animations. The protocol is open which means that I can connect to it from my Gaim application from even Linux. Apple applications can also be configured to connect to it making it a truly universal client for Instant Messaging. Whether Google will port Google Talk to other platforms is something to be seen considering the Voice Chat facility would only be limited to the official client from the company.

Talking about voice, we at TechWhack have mixed opinion about this application. Sometimes it felt better than Skype sometimes not. However, knowing Google, we are pretty sure that the service would improve in the coming days and should pose a serious threat to Skype. The future seems to be bright for this application, as we at TechWhack have been pretty surprised by the invitations we have received from our pals worldwide wanting to chat with personals here on Google Talk.