Google Talks the talk but can it walk the walk

BBC News as well as numerous other sites have reported on Google's latest offering to the world.

Google Talk looks like another good product from Google and will look to challenge both the VoIP services and the IM chat services.

I know that I for one will be testing Google Talk out as I've always been very impressed with the tools that Google develops, in particular GMail was such a leap forward and step to the future over what I now see as crappy Hotmail. Also notice that they've put out a new version of Google Desktop with a fancy new sidebar, not checked it out yet but I will do.

The one question I'm asking myself though is will I use Google Talk much? Well to date I cant say many of my friends have hooked up on the VoIP idea, to be honest I don't chat to them much by normal phone so why would I via VoIP?

Also while, a lot of friends used to use MSN Messenger religiously when still at school, nowadays I can't remember the last time I actually said more than 3 or 4 sentences in Messenger.

The other problem I would have with using Google Talk regularly is that most of my friends don't actually have GMail. A few can't be bothered to switch over email addresses and tell everyone, others just aren't interested cos they think Hotmail is good (more fool them!). Also it'll be interesting to see if Google Talk can seriously challenge MSN and Yahoo in the IM wars because, lets face it, MSN and Yahoo probably have more sign ups and maybe the Talk thing is actually a neat way for Google to drive more GMail sign ups (this review mentions this idea).

The one thing that does interest me though is future developments that may come from such people as Google, Yahoo and Mozilla. Especially in relation to a possible new WebOS and web based applications. Jason Kottke talks about the possible future developments and it sounds pretty interesting. I've just kinda stumbled into the idea of Yahoo's Konfabulator and its widgets and although not getting much use from them yet, I can see the future applications and uses.

I'm all for people challenging the stronghold of Microsoft, and Firefox has shown the way to go with a great browser that brought the innovation lacking at stale Microsoft. I think Google are doing the same and it would be great to see more applications and APIs opened up to allow people to play around with. Just look at all the mashups of GoogleMaps and you'll see what the benefits are.

Likewise, things like Flickr, Del.icio.us, AJAX, etc are all the time providing new ways of interaction and very innovative developments that are getting some people pretty exciting.

T'internet is a pretty interesting place right now, will be kinda strangely exciting to see what the next big development is on the horizon and which road it takes us down. Especially interesting to see what Google comes up with next, just wait til they start selling kitchen sinks!!