Google Talk

So now we've got another instant messaging account to manage. That makes it 5 now for me. MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype and now Google Talk. Luckily I use GAIM to manage all of my accounts except for Skype so I only have to run one application to log into most of those services.

Most messenging services are similar now in their functionality. Skype has the benefit of also providing PC to Phone and Phone to PC calls for a very reasonable price, although I have often found the quality of those calls to be somewhat lacking. PC to PC calls always seem to be very good, as long as they don't get bounced around too many peers.

Skype has the benefit of encrypting all instant messages as well as voice calls. None of the other messengers support that. Although in Google's FAQ they do mention that they plan on adding encryption before before making a production release.

Google has the advantage of being built over open protocols having built their service using the Jabber protcol.

It'll be interesting to see what Google's real plans are for Talk. They have to integrate it into their advertising program somehow, will you start seeing Google ads in your Google Talk program with targeted ads regarding whatever you are messenging about? I imagine that as long as they keep it built on Jabber, they will have to add some convincing features into their client to keep people using that instead of some other Jabber compatible client if the ads get too intrusive.