Google Talk Buddy Icons

[Jeff]

Visiting Google's booth at CES I had a chance to sneak a peek at the next version of Google Talk. Guess what? Google Talk is getting buddy icons! Google Talk engineer Gayle Laakmann has been working on adding them to the Jabber-based instant messenger. Google Talk's buddy icon integration is modeled after Apple iChat.

I asked Gayle if she could give me some insight into what we can expect with the recently announced AIM-Google Talk integration. She couldn't tell me much, other than that it would work similarly to the AIM-iChat integration. This is actually good news for Google Talk fans, because it means that you won't need to create an AIM screen name in order for your AIM buddies to contact you on Google Talk.

What else is coming with Google Talk? Well, there was a demo at CES of Google Talk on a Blackberry mobile messaging device, but other than that there was nothing new that she was aware of (or would admit to). But we can expect a public release of Google Talk with buddy icons around the end of the first quarter, and AIM connectivity sometime in the second quarter.

Links:

• BigBlueBall Google Talk Center | Forum
• Download Google Talk

[Spike]

Originally Posted by Jeff

She couldn't tell me much, other than that it would work similarly to the AIM-iChat integration. This is actually good news for Google Talk fans, because it means that you won't need to create an AIM screen name in order for your AIM buddies to contact you on Google Talk.

This is going to get very heated, what with the Google Talk-AIM and Yahoo-MSN teams forming. Personally, I'm going with Google Talk for its simplicity, and AIM, because of the size of its network (and all my friends use it, and thats important!)

[Gandalf]

I don't need or want buddy icons. Damn Google for adding personality to a perfectly lifeless instant messenger!

Buddy Icons...I agree with what was said earlier. Now that GoogleTalk and AIM will be joining, I knew something like this was going to happen. I wouldn't mind buddy icons as long as there is an option to hide or show them. I just hope the next step GoogleTalk takes isn't adding a huge ad in the contact list...I can't say I'm too thrilled about this partnership.

[MrEggsalad]

I actually like the buddy icons. I mean, features like that are ok. Heh, but after they do this, and Microsoft does the MSN-Yahoo! I won't need Trillian. Buddy icons are ok, and I knew it would have to happen. So now Google Talk is like Windows' iChat. Since Google Talk uses Jabber, they could theoreticly connect to Yahoo, and MSN. Well anything they wanted, mmmm ideas...

[herberg2]

Any word on if this Jabber messenger can actually communicate with other Jabber messengers sometime in the future?

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by herberg2

Any word on if this Jabber messenger can actually communicate with other Jabber messengers sometime in the future?

Actually, yes... Google will be opening up their servers to allow connectivity to other Jabber servers. Gayle couldn't give me a specific date, but implied that we'd see it in the 2nd quarter of 2006.