By Collin Allen

Google Talk

August 24, 2005

Google’s new instant messaging service, Google Talk, is now live. While a Mac client is not yet available, it is possible to set up an account in iChat using Jabber. If you have a GMail account, you’re already signed up. Just open up iChat, and set up a new Jabber account with your GMail address as your username, your GMail password as your Google Talk password, and talk.google.com as the server address. Both text and voice chat work, and video will likely be added in the near future. You can get more information at the Google Talk Help page.

Elsewhere on the web, Skype announced that they will be opening up their service via an API, allowing for better integration with the web, as well as other IM clients. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Maybe Google will buy Skype and combine the two services to create a total IM and VoIP solution – they have the money and the talent, why not do it?

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