Google Talk – Going Back to Basics

Let’s face it: most of us have, in one way or other, encountered Google in our daily lives. Be it accessing Google.com to search for an ideal French omelet recipe or making new friends amongst like-minded people in Google Groups, Google offers endless possibilities for the average netizen including Google Talk, a simple Instant Messaging program. It is still in beta stage and is free to download. Google Talk lets you access your Gmail account to automatically add contacts. I am charmed by how simple Google Talk is. Most Instant Messaging programs in the market are stumbling over themselves trying to outdo the competition by offering customizable user interfaces that will only serve to irk users. I dislike unneeded icons cluttering my chat programs and instead, prefer Google Talk’s simple and minimalistic outlook. Downloading it is also a cinch, and it won’t take up an awful lot of space on your hard drive. Right now, they have yet to provide video conferencing features but I’m already very satisfied with their text and voice messaging capabilities. After signing in to Google Talk, you can personalize your chat experience by adding your own Buddy Picture. You are free to upload photos in jpg, gif, bmp or png formats.

MSN Messenger

MSN Messenger, the free chat utility from Microsoft hits and ideal spot in the market. Very colorful, simple, and easy to use, it’s designed very well in a visual manner. Another benefit is that all of the advertised program features actually work on a regular basis. For anyone who already has a Hotmail account, you can simply type in your associated email address and password, rather than making a new user name.

However, most users should probably uninstall and remove the MSN Today welcome screen and turn off a few other options, doing so will make the IM application run slightly faster, but definitely much more smoothly. MSN Messenger makes use of labeled icons for file transfers, video conferencing, IM chats, and voice chats. At first glance, with all of the games and other fun characteristics of MSN Messenger, it might seem as though the program should only be used for talking or communicating with your friends and family, instead of with anyone at your office. However, MSN Messenger also decided to embed a number of business-oriented applications, specifically file transfers and a talent for XP networking. If you are trying to decide between all of the different IM programs out there, you may find out that MSN Messenger is a good choice for both home and work.

Google Talk

If you want to use the Google Talk IM software program, you will need to sign up for Gmail account. It’s simply another in the long list of Google services that are currently in beta form. Once you have your Gmail account, you can start adding your Gmail contacts as soon as you start downloading the Google Talk application to your computer. Downloading and installing is a relatively fast process and the program will start almost instantly.

One of the first things you’ll probably notice about Google Talk is that it’s one of the most simple chat programs available. This is really very rare when you start examining all of the IM programs out there to choose from. While most instant messaging programs have numerous options allowing users to customize almost every aspect of their interface, you’ll notice that Google Talk is comparably bare bones. No really, it’s unbelievably bare boned and has only a very limited selection of settings for customization. Google Talk does not have a video-conferencing utility, but it does seem to handle voice messaging and text features seamlessly.

Some people have been calling Google Talk a chat utility that’s only meant for specific people, namely those who have Gmail accounts. Fortunately, it’s not at all difficult to sign up for an account and start using Google Talk. If you simply want to use a reliable IM chat program, Google Talk is probably a good choice.