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May 24, 2007

Google Talk Gadget, Now with Emoticons

The showy Google Talk Gadget has three sets of emoticons right there, next to the input box. You know, just in case you want to express your feelings and you can't find the right words.

You can choose between three skins: rounded, rectangular and black&white emoticons. If you select a different skin, all the emoticons from the current conversation will change to the new look.


{ Thank you, Saurabh. }

9 comments:

  1. That's nice, but when are we going to see an update for the Google Talk client?

    We're expecting so many things, but the client hasn't had an update since last November when they added offline messaging, and that already in the Jabber specification. The last significant update to the client was last July when they added file transfer and voicemail, and we've been waiting ever since.

    They are supposedly working on calls to landlines after what was said in an interview last year, and the recent screenshots floating around back this up. They've also recently acquired Marratech's video conferencing software and one of the developers has been hinting towards this appearing soon in his blog. We've also been waiting for AIM integration since Google made the deal with them in 2005, and we've seen more of this recently with what was discovered through the translation program. Skype integration was also mentioned on the Google's blog a while back, but we haven't heard anything since.

    This is all quite frustrating, because Google Talk has the potential to be amazing but progress has been incredibly slow right from the very beginning. The interface is nice the archiving of chats in Gmail is very handy, and I love the fact that it's all based on open standards. The voice quality is also very good, but in the client's current form I find it very hard to recommend to anybody.

    The Flash Google Talk Gadget is just a modified version of Gtalker, which was not developed by Google, so what have the actual Google Talk developers been doing? There have been all these rumours and hints for such a long time now, and I really do hope we see something come from it soon.

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  2. I agree with ian
    I just don't get why the client is so behind.
    In my opinion is far more important than the gadget and even the GMail integrated chat.
    Ahhh Google....

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  3. I fell in love with the "Lack of..." with the GTalk client. I found Messenger was heavy and overloaded in design. I love the clean interface and simplicity. I look forward to release of the new version with the suggested additions. I hope it does little to the feel of the current app.

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  4. Messenger is pretty bloated, but I use it out of necessity. In GTalk, I want integration with other networks, make the "stacking" thing work all the time, and incorporate encryption. Done. Any one of those 3 things will be fine.

    Oh, and add the animated emoticons from the gmail Talk client.

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  5. I've always loved GTalk's minimalist approach ... and these emoticons are a step in the wrong direction. I don't need another Messenger clone.

    They should work on the important things: conference chat/calls for instance.

    Stupid things like emoticons should be handled by add-ons, not built in to the client.

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  6. I don't think the emoticons spoil the minimalist approach, and I love the way they transform into the faces from the original text. I hope they make it into the client, and that the team somehow manages to keep the simple interface while adding the conference calling, video chat, landline phoning and interoperability with more networks.

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  7. I think if google talk adds a bit of life to their google talk program, this would encourage me to use the program more often and therefore promote the Google IM to all the people I know. Come on Google update that client and add some emoticons!!!

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  8. these aren't hidden!!

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  9. for me...i like either way, with emoticons and no emoticons,
    coz some situation sometimes needed us to use it...
    and sometimes we just want a serious chat without those flowery whatever emoticons..
    i think..they should make it this way, they have two type of gTalk which users can switch easily between both, either they want the advance ones or the classic ones, well..it sounds a lots of works to do but yeah... thats what u do best isnt it?? upgrading it until customer/user satisfy, plus u hv billions of money google, works for it then, to keep the investment. ;)

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