Google Talk enters it’s beta phase today. It’s an instant messaging and Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) application. The burning question is, of course, can it be a replacement for other instant messaging clients?

Install & Confiure

The download and install is typically trivial. This is becoming a trademark of google applications. No bloat, just function. The basic application is 900K so over broadband it’s there in seconds.

During the install I’m informed that Google Talk can notify me about new mail, and offered the chance to uninstall GMail Notifier, I do so.

Buddies, Contacts, Friends

I login, using my gmail account name, and initially my buddy list is empty so the “Add Friend” option looks like a good starting point. It crashes, and appears to restart itself automatically. Surprisingly this is the first time that any Google application (beta’s included) has crashed on me.

I try again, and this time it works. Ok, so I can add people that have gmail accounts. Who else? Nobody. There’s no integration with other IM protocols (yet).

Helloooooo?

The problem of there being no integration with existing clients is that I have nobody to talk to, so now I have to wait whilst my friends get online to use the puppy in anger.

Time passes. Happily two contacts turn up rather quickly enticed by their technical curiosity.

The chat interface is nice. What’s particularly good is the way that the windows for these two friends happily clicked together and shared the screen space, each minimising itself as I talked to the other. Innovative features such as this are going to be important in the battle for hearts and minds. I fire up a VOIP chat with one of them, but he has no microphone, so it doesn’t last long, but at least the voice connection works, and is as simple to use as starting a normal text chat.

The Competition

It seems that Google can no longer release products without being in competition:

• By entering the free VOIP market they’re in direct competition with Skype, which has a lot of good will flowing it’s way because of it’s support for Linux.
• They’re also in cometition with each of the main IM providers, because they’re providing a new IM network.
• Eventually they’ll also be in competition with the likes of Trillian and Gaim, because their single client will provide access to all the other IM networks.

A Foot in The Door

From an IM perspective Google have done what they did yesterday with the Google Desktop Search Sidebar: they’ve created an application with an API that has a lot of potential. It uses Jabber/XMPP so there is potential that it can work with any existing protocol, but right now it’s just a shell.

In summary then:

• It doesn’t innovate: in either the IM or the VOIP world,
• It has fewer features than other clients or networks that do similar things.

but

• It has millions of ready made users with gmail accounts.
• It has a surprisingly respectful user interface that is a joy to use.
• It has potential to be extended from day one (unlike AIM or YIM where the owners have fought to keep the protocols closed and proprietary.