Google to Unveil New Chat Feature

This baby will slice, dice, make coffee, deliver the news, send out emails and shine your shoes all in one convenient package. Didn't Microsoft recently get into a lot of trouble by doing the same thing? I sense the upcoming Google OS and Browser. Google-Mart lives!

i think the legal difference is that they are offering this as a free service. the problem with MS and IE was there was no way to opt out. if you don't like what Google is doing you can simply use another email service.

When the world is owned by Google, we're going to wish we had Bill back ;)

The GTalk automatically logging to Gmail is a very handy feature. Update your google talk if it's not enabled for you yet.

Hopefully Google's 'partnership' with AOL can bring about some interoperability with AIM. That'd make GTalk my only IM client.

Why is ok for Google to link GTalk to Gmail but everyone cries out when MS Messenger linked to Hotmail?

I'm not a MS fan but I notice that people allow Google to do what they want and say it's great?

I think right now this is useless...but over time it will become quite handy.

I don't particularly care who makes the services as long as somebody does, and somebody does it right. It's nice that Google is doing it right. The internet can be alot more than it is, and it's nice to see it whenever someone strives for that goal.

My first reaction is that this is a nice feature addition, but nothing jaw-dropping. Maybe over time it will become more useful, but between what's sure to be Google's typical dull interface and being tethered to a browser window, it's just not that inspiring. It might be a nice application for business users who can check their e-mail live while chatting with co-workers as needed.

And the reason people aren't complaining about Google is that you don't use their products on a Google OS (yet) on which their software is installed by default and incredibly intrusive.

On the point raised in direction towards people not complaining about Google due to the fact that people don't use their OS yet, packed with the their applications. I really don't understand what you are trying to argue out there, TrustyChordsAJT.

Must people use their OS? Google is giving out charity to the public, and as far as I know, its either you take it or just leave it. They aren't forcing anyone to embrace their technology or use their applications. They are just giving out an alternative to free, well featured application to serve your daily needs. I am sure when Google unveil their OS, it would be optimised to work out fine with all their apps and thus the question of it been intrusive would not arise at all.

I'm a google gal, go google go!

I think more people will opt in to using their client as soon as Google Talk begins to speak with other IM Clients, which will make this new chat feature become as useful as they claim.

I like the fact that Google's tools are what you need to get a job done. I've loved Gmail and got excited about GTalk, but after using GTalk it really wasn't useful for me. Especially since it's a separate application.

Now integrating it into GMail is awesome, I'll be able to chat to my friends who have GMail right from the same page, and my logs are all in one place too!

One thing I wonder is if you'll be able to turn of the GTalk within GMail if you don't want to use it, but I imagine that will be an option.

Soon, you'll Google your Google to see if something Google has come up on your Google so that you can Google it to your place and Google for it real cheap or may be free even.

Fill in the Googles...

I for one am really looking forward to this. I logged into Gmail this morning (which has absolutely changed my perspective on internet email accounts) and saw the new little "Chat" link which I curiously clicked on. Then I saw "Also coming soon: chat in Gmail!" For those of you not in the business world yet, you probably don't care. Sitting from your college dorm, it's ok to have Aim "dee-da-loop"ing all day long. Hell, you can have porn on your desktop and it's no big deal. However, having graduated from heaven, the real world doesn't let you sit on AIM all day or have email names like ... well let's look "TrustyChordsAJT." Nothing against you TrustyChordsAJT, but there comes a point when you don't want people to think of you as some clever name you came up with while you were drunk on a random Saturday night and wanted to IM that chick from the local coffee shop that's hot. The truth is, having become used to being able to contact people instantaneously, I feel and have felt a bit stifled in the work place for quite some time. If I can log onto GMail when I have a free second and see that "JKRowling" is online and tell her "hey, I loved the newest book, wanna get lunch today? I'm free from 12:15 to 1:30" it would be very helpful.
Maybe I'm just a Google (I capitalize Thy name!) zealot, but I've been waiting for something as integrated and work friendly as this for quite some time.

The main problem is getting users to switch or having interoperability. If I can't chat with my friends or coworkers I won't use Gtalk...Did any of you see the news about Lotus instant messenger a few weeks ago?

http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/general-im-news/33750-ibm-links-sametime-aim-yahoo-google-talk.html#post187883

Google (so far) is free. Microsoft is not. Therefore, when Microsoft tries to force users to use their own browser inside their OS, it leads to anti-trust cases.

Integration is a good thing to users. Chat + email = communication goodness. And when both products are made by the same company, they just work well together. (Usually.)

I think there needs be a balance between a company trying to steer clear of lawsuits, and making software that serves the user by adding together similar tasks into a seamless package. I think Google is making strong steps toward that balance. Hopefully, they'll stick to their "Don't be evil" mantra, and all will be well.

If / when this puppy starts connecting with my AIM / YIM / MSN contacts, YOWZA! I might just forget about the countless hours I spend customizing my MIRANDA client. ;-)

Microsoft also has 90%+ of the OS market through (arguably) dubious practices, so there is in effect little or no choice. Anything MS does to their OS effects 90%+ of computer users and they have no choice about it.

If you want to use google you can, if you dont, then well you guess the rest.

Trillian™ in my opinion already accomplished this.

AdiumX for us Mac users.

You could also just go to Meebo.com if you want to chat but don't want to install (if your employer doesn't block the site, of course ;-)
Last time I checked Google Talk wasn't an option there yet.

Honestly, I think the main difference I see is that Microsoft first positioned itself such that people honestly believed it was the only game in town (even when it wasn't), and then used that dominance to write bloated, buggy, unstable, frustrating, non-interoperable applications that people feel trapped in because Microsoft is the "standard".

Google seems to be making a certain amount of effort to ensure that the services they provide are reasonably stable as well as useful. Their public beta phases are almost insanely long (Google News, for example, was working pretty well for ages before they finally took it out of beta). Google would -- like anyone else -- love it if everyone used their services and only their services, and they're certainly trying to be a Household Word, but they don't appear to be abusing that dominance by shoving bug-laden bloatware down our throats.

I don't deny for a moment that it may end up being a case of benevolent vs. malevolent dictatorship, and that Google may wind up being just as hated as Microsoft. But for the moment, I like Google's attitude better.

Here's where I think things could become interesting for Google to turn the tables on chat.

It's true that virtually nobody uses Gtalk because there isn't enough support for it. When it first debuted, only the geeks knew about it, but they couldn't chat with their non-geek friends so we didn't want another application cluttering our computer. I honestly don't even know that many people with GMail boxes that wouldn't call themselves computer savvy.

If they could actually get more of the AOL-mail kind of people using GMail, then their chat could help it explode when you're about to send a message to someone and 'hey, they're on!'

Google is amazing, I just wish more people used Gtalk