that canadian girl

Google Talk

There were rumours, there were whispers, now it’s here.

Google Talk

Google Talk may be fashionably late in an already busy online voice chat world, but by working on principles different to the other IM/VoIP systems, it might already be winning the heart of some users.


AOL, MSN and Yahoo try to ensure that their users talk to no others simply because they fear that opening up their networks will dilute their hold and reduce the amount of cash they can generate from all these people.

By contrast, Google Talk is based on an open technology called Jabber which was created to help different networks talk to each other.

There is method to Google’s seeming madness. It is clear that Google is trying to build a cluster of programs that effectively turns the net into an operating system – just like Windows does for personal computers.

If anyone’s using it already, let me know… I’ve yet to find anyone to chat with, so I can’t really comment on how I find this version.

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Vero

6 responses to “Google Talk”

  1. pearl Avatar
    pearl

    I’m going to install it soon… I’ll let you know when it’s up and running!!

    Reply
  2. m-c Avatar
    m-c

    i’m on, just have to figure how to get to u!

    Reply
  3. Hal Avatar
    Hal

    I find the Beeb’s comment puzzling to say the least:

    It is clear that Google is trying to build a cluster of programs that effectively turns the net into an operating system – just like Windows does for personal computers.

    Erm, sorry, but even though Google Maps etc. resemble Windows-like applications through clever AJAX implementation, they are no-where near what Windows does for personal computers.

    An operating system provides a platform on which applications run, providing a standard base for them to access hardware and memory management etc.

    Reply
  4. Andrew Pepsicola Avatar
    Andrew Pepsicola

    I think they are more referring to the way that google is building a set of tools which effectively hide the gritty details of the web, into their own unified presentation layer.

    This can then be likened to an operating system hiding the gritty details of the underlying computer.

    Reply
  5. Hal Avatar
    Hal

    Andrew, you offer a better interpretation, however if anything hides the gritty elements of the web, web browsers do.

    All Google are doing with Google Maps, Google Suggest, Gmail, etc. is taking advantage of Javascript objects and functions like XMLHttpRequest() that recent browsers implement. I don’t see why that’s any different to sites like Flikr, it seems just because Google are doing it and making all their projects to the same look-and-feel, all of a sudden there are grand suggestions like it being “an operating system”.

    I just feel the quote

    …just like Windows does for personal computers.

    is very awkward. It’s just bungled, how would you even access the ‘net without an operating system? I don’t mind people comparing the aesthetics of Google’s array of programs to Windows common look-and-feel, but this is just incorrect terminology from the BBC.

    Reply
  6. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    The beeb quote may not be exactingly accurate given what the term “operating system” does indeed traditionally mean, however I do believe that eventually all applications will be net based, with our “local” operating systems being nothing more than dumb terminals which boot into a web browser.

    Reply

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