As an engineer, one of my favorite aspects of delivering Google Talk through the web is that we can enhance it quickly. In fact, we updated the Google Talk Gadget today with a few new features:(1) To make it easier to use Google Talk anywhere, we made it possible to pop out the Google Talk Gadget into a separate window. If you’re using Google Talk on your Google Personalized Homepage, you’ll find a link in right inside the gadget that lets you p

We’re thrilled to be launching a new way to use Google Talk today. The Google Talk Gadget is a web-based module that you can add to your Google Personalized Homepage, letting you see your friends and chat with them — all on your homepage.We know a lot of people love being able to chat with their friends in Gmail Chat, so we created the Talk Gadget to offer that experience in other places, starting with the Google Personalized Homepage. You’ll al

What are you doing right now? It’s a pretty simple question. Me? I’m writing this post. Maybe you’re “eating a magnolia cupcake,” or “at work, but shopping online.” Or maybe you’re “thinking of how to use the word of the day in a sentence: polypropolene.” Twitter is a site that makes it easy to let the world know what you’re doing, and see what other people are up to in a fun, social environment. You can think of it as low-effort mini-blogging.

Using a headset can drastically improve your experience in making a Google Talk voice call.
I’ve often been in situations where I’ve tried to make calls to other Google Talk users using only my notebook PC’s built-in microphones and speakers. While this works, it’s not the best experience. Others around you can hear your conversation. Plus, the other side can hear nasty audio feedback that makes it hard to discern what you’re trying to say.
We’v

You’ve been asking whether Google Talk will work on Windows Vista. Ask no more — today we’re releasing an update that makes it compatible with Vista. You don’t have to do anything — you’ll get the new update automatically — and whenever you upgrade to Vista, Google Talk will automatically work. We have also posted this new version on the Google Talk download page.
Just like other Windows OSs we support, Google Talk can be installed for all us

Quick — can you remember that restaurant your mom recommended or the joke that got three LOLs and a ROTFL? With chat archiving, you don’t have to; you can find your chats in your Gmail account using the same search technology that powers Google.com. Watch this to learn about searching for, and finding, Google Talk chats.Peter AdamsOnline Operations Coordinator

Sometimes, the sound of your friend’s voice or the sight of a favorite smiley may not be enough; you might need to connect by sending along your writing portfolio, or a recording of duck calls, or a video of a guy throwing silly putty from the roof of a parking structure.In the heat of the moment, we can’t anticipate what files you may need to send. That’s why you can send any file of any size and type, any time. For more on sending files through Google Talk, watch this.Peter AdamsOnline Operations Coordinator

If your friend is away from his or her computer or not logged in to Google Talk at all, you can leave a voice message which will be converted to an MP3 file and sent to their email account. In fact, if you’re too nervous to ask out that special friend via direct conversation or have any other reason to want to deliver a message in not-quite-real-time, you can send it directly to voicemail. Learn how by watching this video.Peter AdamsOnline Operat

Google plans on releasing several instructional videos on how to use Gtalk. Here’s the first installment “How to add contacts”. Like we’ve never seen an IM client before. [Continue Reading >>]

Very recently we’ve had some updates to Gmail, including:

• Reply button & more at the top of converstaions
• Forwarding of an entire converstion (thread)
• Notification of new messages that have arrived while you were writing your reply (useful for mailing lists)
• Send chats to people even if they’re offline

Now we have the mute button (Adam calls it the murder button). Actually I take that back. It’s not a button, it’s an option and a shortcut key. [Continue Reading >>]

Bloggers are reporting that Skype is now available as part of Google’s “Google pack” download. Others are reporting that Google’s own IM/Chat/VoIP client Gtalk is missing. Gtalk is not missing. [Continue Reading >>]

Now if your friends have chat history enabled, you can send them messages even when they’re not online. Just enter a message into the chat window as you would normally, and they’ll get it the next time they sign into Google Talk. In Gmail, offline messages can be searched and organized — just like instant messages in their chat history.

Via the G Talk “What’s new” page.

I’ve just noticed a new button in Gmail. When you mouse over a person in your contact list, a little “details” box pops up. Well, right beside the Email and Chat buttons, there’s now a Call button. The button is enabled if you are also signed into Google Talk. Clicking on the button places a call to the contact using Google Talk. Cool beans.

If you’re a developer, this will interest you. Google’s Libjingle, which can be found on Sourceforge.

Google’s Libjingle (http://code.google.com/apis/talk/index.html) is Google Talk’s implementation of Jingle and Jingle-Audio (proposed extensions to XMPP) to interoperate with Google Talk’s peer-to-peer and voice calling capabilities.

Today’s Google gossip comes from the Valleywag blog. According to them, Google will be rolling out free wifi internet access in all major US cities. There are already plans to do it in Google’s hometown of MountainView CA, but as reported by business 2 last year, they are still planning to aim at all major US cities. Apparently San Fransisco will be next.

What’s next on the list is Google’s new AJAX webpage editor. Codenamed trogdor (what could that possibly mean??), this app will apparently let you edit your webpages on the net, but with a cool (Gmail-esque maybe?) Javascript interface.

I just logged into my Gmail account and lo and behold they’ve got a big announcement- I can now talk in Gmail!

It looks like the new Gmail/Google Talk features discussed on zdnet are now live. So anyways, enjoy Oh, and you can read Google’s Gmail FAQ/What’s new page too.

EDIT: You can now read about this on Google’s blog. Gmail + GTalk = Crazy Delicious ??