The New Gmail Chat

The once pointless (IMHO) Google Talk is now actually coming to something. What once served the purpose as a quick contacts list on the side of Gmail has slowly been picking up steam to become a fairly useful tool.

Recently, AIM support was added, improving it from something utterly useless — no one i know actually uses Google Talk as their main IM — to something extremely useful, especially for those like me who use AIM almost religiously.

Anyway, yesterday Gmail announced that they would be adding Video and Audio chat. Some may say (and validly so) that this is kinda useless; i agree. Unless I happen to be reviewing for a test with some classmates, i find Video chat to be a novelty that is best combined with iChat effects. But for those who use video or audio chat, you now can do so with your Gtalk buddies from the comfort of your Gmail windows.

A plug-in is required from Google in order to use it, and it may not be available to all users yet.

Finally, those without webcams can be chatted with in one-way video and audio chats, although Google has partnered with Logitech to make certain webcams discounted until November 30 to encourage people to start video chatting. See here for the details.

(Note: you can only video chat with those who have already installed the plugin.)