Google Talk has just been released a few hours ago, it's a beta version but is very stable.

I have been watching this product closely as it looks set to be the first mainstream IM that relies on the open source Jabber protocol (a favourite of mine).

What's so special about Jabber? (Taken from Wikipedia)

A unique feature of the Jabber system is that of transports, also known as gateways, which allow users to access networks using other protocols - such as AIM and ICQ (using OSCAR), MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger (using the .NET Messenger Service), Yahoo! Messenger, SMS or E-mail. Unlike multi-protocol clients like Trillian or Gaim, Jabber provides this access at the server level by communicating via special gateway services running on a remote computer. Any Jabber user can 'register' with one of these gateways by providing the information needed to log on to that network, and can then communicate with users of that network as though they were Jabber users. This means that any client which fully supports the Jabber protocol can be used to access any network to which a gateway exists, without the need for any extra code in the client.

Google, unlike Microsoft have made it possible to connect to their network with any client that supports Jabber. However just like a stunt Microsoft would pull, Google Talk does not support server-to-server communications which is a major feature of Jabber. So Google Talk is looking like a closed source proprietary application.

The Windows program has both text and voice chat and is closely integrated with Gmail meaning your Gmail login will work with Google Talk and you'll get notifications of your new email.

My hope is that many people will adopt this as this product grows to become superior to the competition just as Gmail is doing. Hopefully the Jabber protocol will grow because of this and Google Talk will one day support server-to-server communications.



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