I'm talking 'bout some GoogleTalk!

I downloaded GoogleTalk today. At first glance it seemed like just another IM service with the immediately apparent value added feature of pop up notifications of incoming email on my gmail account.

In the spirit of community and collaboration "from the edges" I sent several notifications to my gmail user contacts. No biggie, no surprises.

Off to see what the authorities have to say about it. . .

Dave Winer: "Big Yawn. Why should anyone care?"

Yeah Dave, yaaaawwn. I left my computer.

Hours later I return to see that my man Bret Dougherty, Chapel Hill Blogger, recent masters program graduate, and local radio sports show personality had pinged me w/ a message to give the GoogleTalk feature a shot. We chat, er, talk, and in the course of our conversation I turned Bret on to del.icio.us. Collaboration from the edges!

My take on GoogleTalk: VERY SLICK. Well done! The design difference between GoogleTalk/IM is proportional to the difference between Yahoo! Maps and GoogleMaps. There was very little latency in my conversation w/ Bret; sound quality was great. I'm using a goofy looking $20 Radio Shack computer desktop mic and hearing the conversation through some Bose desktop speakers. I'm sure someone using a headset w/ mic would have an even better experience.

Sorry, Dave Winer. This is yet another way Google is roping in their community of users w/ another kick-ass widget. Google expands its value from seach-portal to, particularly w/ gmail integration, a communication portal.