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Best Windows Freeware
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August 24, 2005.
Google Talk Review
It's pretty good, but not great.
It's finally here. Rumours have been flying about Google's impending instant message application for a long time, and it finally arrives not with a bang or a whimper, but with a nice pop.
The Good:
- VoIP (Voice Over IP)
- No advertisements
- Jabber Server
- TLS
- Supports external chat clients ( GAIM)
- Small
- Responsive
- Imports Gmail contacts transparently
The Bad:
- No encryption
- No file transfers
- No video conferencing
- Requires Gmail account
- No new features over other chat services
- No chat rooms
The Ugly
- It's an easy way for Google to know everything about you.
- Jabber server does not communicate with other Jabber servers.
The best thing about Google Talk is that it's easy and unobtrusive. The download is only 900k, and installation is quick and pain-free. You sign on with your Gmail address. At that point, you can start adding contacts by either searching your pre-existing Gmail contacts or manually adding them. If you invite someone without a Gmail account, they are emailed a Gmail invitation and have to sign up before they can start using Google Talk.
The chat itself is simple and straightforward as chat should be. You can text chat or speak to them via VoIP. The audio quality is outstanding.
You can also use Google Talk with a 3rd party chat application like GAIM. Google even specifically tells you how to set it up on their site.
Google chose to use open-source Jabber for their chat server, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, one of the main advantages of Jabber is that the servers can talk to each other. In other words, if you're using Jabber, you should be able to instant message anyone else that's using a Jabber-based chat service. Google mysteriously chose not to implement this. If you use the Google Talk client, you can only chat with other Google Talk users.
Privacy is a big concern these days, and Google only partially addresses it. Without getting into the technical details, suffice it to say that the connection is secure, and nobody can eavesdrop on your conversations. However, unlike many other chat options, your text is not encrypted on Google's servers. They state that they will not save any of the conversations on their network, but, be aware, they are able to.
As Google's reach grows larger and longer, the potential for abuse also grows. Google Desktop, Gmail, saved searches. These are potential privacy holes. Thus far, Google has fulfilled its promise to "Do no evil", but corporations can live longer than their founders.
http://www.google.com/talk/
