September 1st, 2005

Google Talk is a free instant-messaging (IM) application that lets you make PC-to-PC calls.

While Google doesn't exactly break new ground here, I'd still recommend it.

If you haven't been paying attention, Google has become much more than the search-engine company of choice. Google's free downloadable Picasa software is arguably the best Windows program for organizing digital photos.

Another freebie program, Google Earth, is a nifty three-dimensional model of the entire planet. Using satellite imagery, you can zoom in on any address or locale on Earth.

I've praised Google's fine Gmail Web-based e-mail service. It provides a generous 2 gigabytes of storage, along with speedy search capabilities. Last week, Google opened up Gmail to the masses; it had been previously available only by invitation.

You'll need a Gmail username and password (which you can get at gmail.google.com) to exploit the new instant-messaging application, Google Talk. The programs are tightly intertwined.

Google Talk works well, though it lacks several features found in such rival programs as AOL's AIM, Microsoft's MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. As with any IM program, Google Talk lets you start a text chat by clicking on a name on your list of chat friends. With a computer speaker, microphone, headset or USB phone, you can also make or receive a call through your PC.

The quality of a voice conversation I had with a far-flung colleague was quite decent, on par with that of a PC-to-PC phone rival, Skype.

When you first download Google Talk, your Gmail contacts are loaded into the program. You can invite other people to download Google Talk and take on a Gmail account at the same time. To thwart spammers who might otherwise gobble up Gmail accounts, Google requires a mobile phone number.

It will then send a text message to that number containing a code, which lets you complete the Gmail signup process.

Google says it's working on a way to let you hold text chats with (or call) non-Gmail users via computer. You can't use Google Talk to call a regular phone number just yet. That's a service Skype offers for a fee.

It's to Google's credit that it's embracing industry standards to let Google talkers schmooze with users of other IM programs. It seems silly that most people can't exchange messages across all the major services, notably from AOL, MSN and Yahoo. With some exceptions, those other services have kept their IM networks closed.

For now, Google talkers can communicate (text only) with Apple's iChat, Adium, Gaim, Miranda, Psi and Trillian Pro. EarthLink is also collaborating with Google on opening up communications.

As with other instant-messaging programs, you can customize your "status" to indicate whether you're available to chat, or are, say, at the gym or in transit.

A positive note: Google Talk is ad-free (Gmail is not). But Google's first IM program isn't nearly as versatile as its competitors. You can't change fonts, transfer files, share photos, launch games or do video chats.

You can't even dress up your conversations with graphical smiley face "emoticons." Still, I'm betting that Google Talk will rapidly improve.

The beauty of Google's first desktop search effort, launched last fall, was that it extended searching beyond the Web to the contents of your PC. By indexing files on your hard drive, Google let you instantly find documents by file name or by words or names in those documents.

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It could also retrieve Web pages you viewed, e-mails and transcripts of certain IM sessions.

But there were shortcomings. Google could search Word, Excel and PowerPoint files - but not other common file types such as PDFs. It could search Web chats in AOL's AIM but not MSN Messenger. It could search Web pages viewed on Internet Explorer but not on other browsers such as Netscape and Firefox.

Those flaws have been fixed. Google can now search files across your entire network. Once installed, the new Google Desktop starts indexing your email, files and Web history when the PC has been idle for more than 30 seconds; the complete process can take hours. For security or privacy reasons, you can filter search results. By default, password-protected Office files are not indexed.

Among other features, Google Desktop adds a search toolbar inside Outlook. The most noticeable part of the new Desktop is a nearly 2-inch-wide column of "live" modules Google calls Sidebar. This strip can be docked on either side of the PC screen or, if you are wary of clutter, hidden altogether.

Sidebar includes a search bar, from which you can enter a search query or launch programs. There are customizable modules for news (personalized based on what you read on the Web), weather, stocks and e-mail (new Gmails are shown).

One module displays a photo slideshow. Another dubbed Web Clips contains blog and news feeds. A quick-view panel contains a list of frequently visited Web pages.

There's also a "scratch pad" for entering free-form notes that can be saved to a file. I downloaded plug-in modules including a to-do list and a program for controlling Apple's iTunes. Click inside any of the modules and a slightly bigger, more detailed window slides out.

Source: Yahoo News

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