Review of Google Talk – Messenger which needs lots of improvement!

Google Talk as the name suggests is the messenger which was developed by Google Inc. The first beta version of the program was released on August 24, 2005. It uses the open XMPP protocol (popularly know as Jabber) and thus allows easily to communicate with the other networks which operate on the same protocol. Google talk uses Jingle protocol for its VoIP (Voice over IP) and now lets look at the PROS & CONS of Google Talk.

PROS of Google Talk :

1. Sleek & Easy to use interface : Google Talk has got the sleekest interface ever. With simple interface, Google made sure that each and every user gets to easily access all the features. Most of the features are available through the personal message window.

2. Interoperability : Google Talk is based on XMPP protocol and thus it is possible for members of other networks (which are using XMPP protocol) to communicate with Google Talk users without worrying about signing up for Google talk.

3. Directly linked with Gmail : This is one of my favorite features. Google talk is directly linked to the Gmail account and thus any chat which is done over Google Talk is automatically saved in Gmail account and thus the chat can be referred at any point of time. Who doesn’t know that Gmail has already got a sleek version of Google Talk embedded in it and that gives another point to this service.

4. Voice calls & other useful features : Google talk has got facility to make voice calls and you’ll be surprised to see the clarity of the voice. Other features like File transfer, Photo sharing, Video sharing are some of the features which make it a useful application. It has got inbuilt Gmail notification and thus notifies you if you get any email on Gmail. For those who are into social networking with the help of Orkut will love the Scrap notification as well.

5. Light Weight and easy on memory : Google talk is so a very light weight application and right now just taking 13 Mb of memory in my computer. Which is very less as compared to other applications.

CONS of Google Talk :

1. No Video Calls : Google talk lacks the biggest and most important feature and that is it doesn’t support video calls at this point of time. Even after almost 2 years after the launch, it misses the basic features.

2. No Conference facility : One cannot make conference voice calls with the help of Google Talk. So, there is no scope of adding multiple people over the phone and thus it is a big negative of Google Talk.

3. No facility of changing the font & color on the fly : It misses the buttons which can allow users to change the font of particular chat and one has to do it specifically by changing the preference. Other messengers give these options and I don’t see any reason of why Google Talk misses these features.

4. No support for plugins : Google Talk doesn’t have any official list of plugins. There are few fan sites which have some hacks and registry tweaks of google talk and some skins but nothing official and they are hacks and not plugins.

5. No stealth settings : Google talk misses one of the important and my favorite feature and that is the stealth settings for individual users or in fact for everyone. It doesn’t allow you to stay in the invisible mode and is big drawback and can be inconvenient at times.

Overall rating & views :

Google Talk is a very basic messenger software and which actually needs lot of development and attention by Google engineers. Although, it is in Beta stage but still it misses the very basic features of a messenger and thus it is not the recommended by me at all. Although, it is a different thing that I am always on this software and the only reason is that it is tightly integrated with Gmail service. Otherwise, Google talk would have been one of the least used service from Google.

Links : Google Talk | Customize Talk

Technorati : Google, Messenger, Review, ReviewSaurus, Talk