Google Talk
From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, by MultiMedia
Google Talk is a service offered by Google for
Voice over IP and instant messaging. Google Talk beta was released on
August 24, 2005 and consists of both a service and a client used to
connect to the service. Unlike some other instant messaging
services,
Google Talk uses an open protocol (Jabber) for the IM part and it
encourages the use of clients other than their own in connecting to the
Google Talk service.
As of the launch date, the Google Talk client is available only for
Windows (2000, XP, Server 2003); users of other operating systems are
provided with instructions for various popular Jabber clients, such as
Psi or Miranda IM for older versions of Microsoft Windows, iChat or
Adium for Mac OS X and Gaim for Linux. However, any program capable of
using the Jabber protocol is sufficient, although the voice over IP
service only works with the Google client. Google claims they will
release a specification for the voice extension in the near future.
Google Talk
Google Talk Beta |
Maintainer: Google
Latest release: 1.0.0.80 / December 14, 2005
OS: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
Genre: VoIP/Instant messenger
License: Proprietary freeware
Website: talk.google.com |
History
The idea of a Jabber-based Google IM service was proposed by
Apple-X on August 22, 2004. Exactly one year later, after the rumor of a
Google-branded "communications tool" service had been reported by the New
York Times and detailed by the Los Angeles Times on August 22, 2005,
the subdomain talk.google.com was found to have an active Jabber server .
Two methods of logging into the server were discovered soon after and the
ensuing response by eager bloggers revealed to numerous others how to login
before the official release by Google. On the evening of August 23, many
logged-in users using port 5222 to connect were disconnected and unable to
log back in. Users using port 5223 to connect were still able to log in, and
at 04:12:52 A.M. UTC those users received a broadcast instant message from
gmail.com, an apparently official username used by
Google to communicate with their user base, that stated "The broken link has
been fixed. Thanks for being our first users!" Port 5222-connectivity was
found to have been re-enabled.
Technical
Google has announced that a major goal of the Google Talk
service is interoperability. Google Talk uses Jabber and XMPP to provide
real-time extensible messaging and presence events, including offline
messaging (Only through non-Google clients like Adium). However, at this
time, Google Talk, unlike most Jabber servers, does not permit
server-to-server communications, and as such, users of Google Talk cannot
talk to users of other Jabber servers.
On December 15th 2005, Google released libjingle, a C++ library to implement
Jingle, "a set of extensions to the IETF's Extensible Messaging and Presence
Protocol (XMPP) for use in voice over IP (VoIP), video, and other
peer-to-peer multimedia sessions."
Google Talk does not encrypt the Jabber stream, instead using an
undocumented non standard way of authenticating to the service, retrieving a
token from a secure web server. Other clients than Google's own are required
to secure their streams with TLS before sending the password, causing them
to stay encrypted throughout the whole session. Google claims that all
messages (text and voice) will be encrypted in future releases.
Offline messages are not supported so far and the configuration options
available are very limited.
Tips
-
You can change the font size by focusing your mouse
cursor either on the message window or input box, holding the control
key down, and spinning the scroll wheel.
-
Use the keyboard: Pressing Tab cycles through
conversations in each stack and the main window. Ctrl+Tab or Shift+Tab
cycles backwards.
-
When you see a message notification, you can right click
it to close it without focusing the conversation window.
-
To make something bold, you must place an asterisk
before and after the area you want to bold: *example* turns to example
-
If you want to italicize something, you must place
underscores around the area you want to italicize: _example_ turns to
example
-
Between one set of '*'s or '_'s, you can have up to and
including 100 characters. If you exceed this number of characters, the
effect will not take place and you will get normal text with the * or _
symbols visible at either end
-
Typing a smiley like :) and :D in an IM window will make
it turn bold blue like: :) and :D. Other valid smileys are :( :P :O :|
:'( :x :-) :-D :-( :-P :-O :-| :-x.
-
Preceding text with a symbol from the hebrew alphabet,
such as ห and ๆ, makes text bold and large.
-
Surrounding text with \\ and // makes text clickable
like a link but does not lead to any url.
These tips are a feature of the Google client and not
Jabber in general. They will not work with all third party clients.
Criticism, reviews, and bugs
Critics of the new service have pointed out that contrary to
Gmail's philosophy of storing all information with
over two gigabytes of storage, Google's own client will not log more than 20
lines of text chat. In addition, Google Talk does not allow users to search
through their past conversation; this is interesting considering that Google
specializes in searching. This was one of the notable features of
Gmail that made it stand out over other email
services.
Search Engine Watch also has argued that the product lacks the "wow"
factor associated with the unveiling of other Google products like
Gmail or Google Maps.
In addition they cite the fact that Google Talk only allows PC to PC voice
chat, not any connection to the traditional telephony network (PSTN).
Several critics have begun calling the product "underwhelming," though
others predict various additional (impressive) features in the future of
Google Talk.
There have also been several bugs reported in the Windows client for Google
Talk, including e-mail message-notification unreliability, taskbar
notification problems during conversations with more than one contact, and
tab-sizing problems. Also it appears that using the escape key to close chat
windows does not work if the window has been open for a moderate amount of
time. Similarily, the buddy list window, if left un-minimized for a length
of time, automatically "maximizes" (to the same size), and has to be
"restored" with Windows in order to minimize once again.
Many people would like to see server-to-server communication enabled, to
make Google Talk part of the larger Jabber network. There is also no
official conference or chat room feature, meaning that users can talk to
only one person at a time; however, a user-created Python script enables a
chat room to be hosted by users with unused accounts .
Many critics, while noting its lack of features, are refreshed at the clean
look as compared with other instant messengers. This clean look is
consistent with many of Google's current projects, from its home page to its
mapping service.
Future releases
Google reports that they are working on adding new features,
and many clues found within Google Talk's Privacy Policy suggest Google Talk
will support file transfers . Google has a good track record of
following up on user suggestions in their Gmail
product. Unlike with Gmail, Google is not
disclosing what features they are working on in general, although an FAQ
states that they are working on adding rich text formatting features. (Google's
public statement is that one cannot change the formatting in instant
messages. This is not true.)
More recently, Google has opened up to the people about its support for
Server to Server communication between Jabber servers . However, the
actual support has yet to be integrated into the messenger.
As part of Google's 5% acquisition of AOL on December 20, 2005 , Google Talk
users will be able to communicate with AOL's market-leading AIM instant
messaging service . Google Talk users will require an AIM screen name in
order to communicate with AIM users .
See also
References
External links
Google Guide made by MultiMedia | Free content and software
This guide is licensed under the GNU
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