Via Mashable (“Google Talk Turns Into a Chat Widget“, 27 February 2008):
“A new Google Talk feature called Chatback lets you put up a widget on your website which lets visitors send messages directly to your Google Talk account. Your visitors, however, don’t need a Google talk account; they can simply start writing messages directly into the widget. The chat opens up in a new window, so visitors can leave the actual site and keep chatting.”
Mashable’s statement that the new Google Talk feature “lets visitors send messages directly to your Google Talk account” is not completely accurate. The only role that the locally installed client plays in the equation is to provide your status update to the widget.
When a guest actually sends you a chat invite you are sent the URL to a web instance of Google Talk and must participate there via a browser. You can’t do it from within the desktop client.
I’m completely unimpressed with Google Talk these days. What began as a promising uncluttered minimalist foray into instant messaging has quickly been relegated to the role of poorer cousin to Gmail Talk and the web-based GTalk.
Personally, I have no interest in online chat tools like Meebo and Gmail Tallk because I don’t like having the sessions tied to a browser. Desktop clients circumvent these requirements through the installation of software. You’re then able to remain logged in to the account without having a dedicated browser open and eating up your RAM.
Unfortunately, all developments in Google’s IM presence for months have been funnelled into their online web chat tools, with none of the same changes passed along to the client you install on your desktop. The new emoticons aren’t there; the invisible status setting isn’t there; the group chat option isn’t there. I used to think the changes were coming; now I think Google has written off the application completely but hasn’t bothered to tell users.
With online video, audio, and text chat, file transfer, and other tools so prevalent in other desktop IM clients like Skype, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN messenger, so few people actually using Google Talk relatively speaking, and a complete vacuum of innovation on their Desktop Client I fail to see any reasons for using Google Talk anymore.
References:
- “Google Talk Turns Into a Chat Widget“, Mashable, 27 February 2008
- “Google Talk Adds a Chatback Widget“, TechCrunch, 27 February 2008
- “Google Talk’s new chatback badge: is there a privacy issue here?” ZDNet Blogs, 26 February 2008
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