jrothwell97's Journal: Google catches up on IM client

Yesterday Google released an update to its Google Talk client, the small app that sits on your desktop to work as an Email, IM and VOIP client for the Gmail service. I've been using it for a few days, and it looks like Google is finally catching up with the rest of the crowd on IM.

Google is now permitting voicemail messages to be left. These to people without Gmail or Google Talk appear as Emails with the voicemail attached as an MP3 file. With Gmail, they appear under the Voicemail label and open in the default MP3 music player. Under Google Talk, there is a special notifier widget next to the Email widget telling you how many voicemail messages you have. However, at present, you can't record your own "please leave your name and number after the beep".

File transfers are also new in this release. Files are saved under My Documents and there are no restrictions to what file types or sizes you send. While this may become an opportunity for viruses and trojans to creep in, you can expect Google to plug this soon.

Something else you can expect is a version for Mac OS and Linux. While at the moment it's only compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Server 2K3, other Google apps (like Picasa and Google Earth) have appeared in Mac and Linux variants. Prepare for world takeover.