I was reading a very interesting post today about Google Talk and a previously unknown (at least to me) feature that allows you to set up group chats with multiple users. This has got me thinking about Google Talk in general.

I really like the Google Talk application but I only have three contacts on it. Not due to having no friends (!) but simply because I only know three people that use Google Talk for their instant messaging purposes. I think part of the problem is that Google does not really make much of an effort to publicise its chat program. I mean, it's there and it's freely available but Google's sparse main page ensures that there is no banner advertising urging people to use Google Talk. You can use it on Google Docs to collaborate on projects but do you see Google screaming from the rooftops about it?

Whereas in contrast, MSN and Yahoo both openly advertise their chat programs on their main pages and they have a much bigger user-base. They spend more time and energy promoting and pushing their chat programs and as a result, they have got further ahead in the instant messaging market.

I think it was a master-stroke by Google to integrate Google Talk into Gmail and to have Google Talk conversations stored in Gmail accounts as searchable messages. Notice how fast Yah00 copied this feature for Yahoo mail owners. But I prefer to use the standalone Talk application which has a nifty file-transfer capability, new mail notification (for Gmail accounts) and thumbnail photos of Gmail users who are on your contact list (assuming they have put a photo of themselves on their Gmail accounts). I also like the simple and sparse design (a famous Google trademark). Hell, they don't even have emoticons!

One thing has really irritated me though - I tried putting Google Talk onto Pidgin and it worked OK. But the problem was that everytime I emailed someone, their name would instantly appear on my Google Talk contact list (even if it was a newsletter that I had emailed to subscribe to)! So in the end, I had to uninstall GT from Pidgin and run GT separately. If you run the standalone GT program, you can choose to hide people who are not approved to be on your contact list. But if you attach GT to a Jabber chat client, then you will get everyone that you ever email popping up on your contact list. Rather annoying.