21 Comments

Google Talk for GMail is out in the wild

February 8, 2006 by in Tech with 21 Comments

Google Talk integration is officially live for UNEASY editors and we’ve spent some time exchanging messages back and forth between the desktop client and the slick web interface. The Google team has spent some quality time polishing what looks and feels like a finished product. Subtle details in both web and desktop clients offers users a great amount of control over casual and confidential conversations.

Upon logging into the new Gmail / Gtalk interface, users – who have the new feature enabled in their accounts – will noticed a fresh new ‘Quick Contacts’ module directly above the ‘Labels’. The Quick window presents a list of both online Gtalk and Gmail users. Clicking a contact opens a simple chat window containing two menu items: ‘Options [provides options to 'Go off the record' or 'block user'] & ‘Pop out’ [allows repositioning of the window within Gmail].

The same options – ‘Go off the record’ & ‘Block user’ – are also present in the desktop client. Kudos to Google for consistent seamless integration between both web and desktop clients.

After some initial tests, we observed your browser must be either FireFox or IE 5 or better, sorry no Safari support. Also, in Firefox if ANY google customizing extension is installed it must be shut off (ie: CustomizeGoogle, and Google AdBlock). The initial chat window pops up in the lower right hand corner of the screen with only the option to minimize it or to pop it out into a new window. I’m sure in future versions Google will allow you to move the chat window.

First opinion: So far so good!

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More pictures after the jump

Click to Enlarge

(Write up by both Dan and Derek)


  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    definitely a slick feature that google implemented. all we need now is cross protocol support so we can all retain our favorite screen names and have conversations archived in gmail.

  • alex cd

    No word of it in the UK – ‘googlemail’

  • kieron

    alex, change ur language in the account settings, to english – usa. you should get it. as well as the webclips etc…

  • Lougle

    Do you think Google will ever add Safari support?

  • Paul

    Yeah I know I seen the webclips when I changed the language, problem is that I don’t speak american english I speak UK english!

    C’mon google consider us googlemail users as well.

    Paul

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    of course google will add safari support. it will just take some time. i remember when gmail first came out the entire service had accessibility limitations.

  • http://nogg3r5.blogsome.com nogg3r5

    To start off with, whats the deal with safari? I dont use it, but no one seems to support it, can it really be that hard?

    Secondly, why the blazes do i have the whole chat thing in my barely used contactless blog email account and not in my primary account. Bah! I swear its a fix!

    NOGG3R5

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    safari uses a different rendering engine and and has a small overall user base. i’m sure browser support is on the way. it’s just sitting towards the bottom of the list.

  • Paul

    Yeah small userbase, it is also used by a small minority of linux users with their sort of finder application, I have forgotten it’s name but it was the first user of the KHTML engine.

    Paul

  • javier

    i used it in safari for the 5min it was up on my account, and it worked perfectly fine!

  • Justin

    Very cool. I presume you have my gmail email, mods?

  • http://nogg3r5.blogsome.com nogg3r5

    Cool, i get it now. Never managed to get my head around that one.

  • http://joeanderson.co.uk/blog/ Joe Anderson

    I think the only reason this was released is because no one uses Google Talk, and they believed integrating it into Gmail would increase it’s uservase.

  • http://nogg3r5.blogsome.com NOGG3R5

    I use Gtalk, its great, its light enough to run alongside MSN, so i have contacts on both!!

  • http://www.stylized.org.uk/crazybarbour CrazyBarbour

    I don’t exactly see why you need Google Talk integrated into your browser, when you can just have the desktop client, or in my case Adium…..!
    Well I suppose it would be useful to some…. just not really me :P

    Joe – Google Talk is really popular, I thought, …. I prefer it over MSN.

  • http://the-enginerd.blogspot.com Anand

    I agree with CrazyBabrour. Other than it helping in adding to the userbase, it doesn’t make any sense at all. The desktop client is pretty fine!
    And will it not lead to organizations blocking Gmail access to their employees??

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    you guys are forgetting about users who access their contacts from public terminals. no download or installation needed.

  • http://www.stylized.org.uk/crazybarbour CrazyBarbour

    Well they should just carry about there laptops…. and go to like a Starbucks for a wifi connection! lol
    Altho I sort of can get why they would want it, but I just don’t have a use for it at present.

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    starbucks!? why pay for wifi these days? sbux is the worst place to go for wifi because you have to pay. i never understood why starbucks didn’t jump on the free wifi bandwagon.

  • http://www.stylized.org.uk/crazybarbour CrazyBarbour

    :O Over her in the UK it’s free…..

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    ridiculous! free wifi for international sbux’s but not stateside?!

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