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I’ve spent the last hour or so playing around with the new Google IM client and have a few thoughts. First of all, I’d like to commend Google for creating a clean, ad-free, Gmail integrated chat client. Gmail contacts are indexed and easily accessible through the chat client. Multiple chat windows make use of a slick sliding “tabbed” interface navigated using the Tab and Ctrl + Tab combo. The client also serves as a Gmail notification utility.

As of today, you’re only able to text chat / audio chat with other Google users. According to this Google Talk help page future support for mutli-protocol chat is being worked on. I’ve also discovered that inviting non-Google users to Google Talk will send them a Gmail invite. That means unlimited Gmail invites. Who doesn’t have a Gmail account that is still looking?

I’m sure Google will slowly integrate all of its online services into the Google Talk client within the next few months.

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