Want to call and chat with your friends for free, right from the comfort of your house at your own convenience? Then download Google Talk now. Google Talk or GTalk as it is more popularly known as is a free, online Windows software application, specially designed for VoIP and instant messaging.
This web-based chat application developed by Google Inc. not only enables you to text chat but also voice chat with family and friends from across the world. Check out what all you can do with GTalk:
Text chat
Voice chat
One of the best aspects of GTalk is that it can be downloaded easily within a matter of few seconds since it is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The application owes its wide popularity to the fact that it is available in several chief languages including English, German, French, Japanese and Italian.
Some of the salient features of GTalk have been briefly described below:
Milestones in the history of GTalk
History reveals that on 23 August, 2004, the proposition of a Google IM service based on XMPP was first suggested by Eoban Binder on Applexnet.com. This was followed by the first beta version of the application being officially launched on 24 August, 2005. Subsequently, Google released libjingle, a C++ library code for use in peer-to-peer communication.
It was only on 7 February, 2006 that Gmail received the chat functionality with an integrated XMPP client. Then on 14 March, 2007, Google released an Adobe Flash based Talk module known as Google Talk gadget. By adding the Google Talk gadget to iGoogle or embedding it in any web page, you can chat from any operating system, supported by Adobe Flash Player. Next, on 26 November, a new feature 'Group Chat' was added to GTalk. This proved to be advantageous for the users as it facilitated an environment similar to an IRC, in which many users could chat with each other simultaneously.
Later, on 6 December, 2007, the Gmail integrated chat was upgraded to incorporate AOL Instant Messenger chat capability. With this facility, GTalk users while they are still signed into the GTalk service, can also sign into AIM and chat with any AIM user. Likewise, GTalk users can also chat with Skype users. Then on 28 February, 2008, another new feature called 'chatback' was added to GTalk. This enables a GTalk user to chat with people who don't have their own GTalk account. Soon after on 11 November, 2008, Google Chat was launched. Shortly, on 7 July, 2009, GTalk along with other Google products like Gmail, Google Apps and Google Docs was declared out of beta.
GTalk Labs Edition, a new version of GTalk has already been developed and future releases include SIP. Through SIP, you can communicate with friends from other clients such as MSN or Yahoo Messenger. Google has always been actively involved in improvising its products and the same stands true in the case of GTalk. In short, GTalk has indeed revolutionized the world of online communication.
