Google has (as everyone is reporting) started up its own Instant Messaging system. Nobody’s terribly excited about it, largely because it’s “only” a nice, clean, straightforward IM client, and everyone knows that if your IM client doesn’t give you traffic, weather, and/or the latest results from The Great Race, it’s not nearly sexy enough to get excited about.
I’ve downloaded it, though the last thing I need is another IM client (already running, gack, three of them). Google Talk uses the Jabber standard — but none of my others do. (And, yes, I know there are other IM clients out there like Trillian that take care of that automagically.)
Sign-in is via your Gmail account — and as of today, Gmail has become “open” to all, not requiring a special invite. That’s probably more exciting news to some.
The Great Race? That wonderful Blake Edwards film from 1965? I love that movie! But how can there be “latest results” from it?
I’m tickled that the thing works from my workplace — at least for now.
As for the ‘open’ GMail accounts… good. I’ve never had an ounce of regret for using GMail for my email aggregator and tool, exclusively. I can only hope that GChat starts from the barebones beta that it is and grows into the kick-ass tool that GMail is.
Haven’t quite gotten past having my e-mail on my own box, available regardless of network connectivity (and etc. on how to route mail back and forth to/from it).
But, yeah, it will be interesting to see how the service evolves.