Friends of Google Talk

If we want to chat with somebody who is using a Google Talk, do we need to install Google Talk?

No need.

The protocol used by GTalk is XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol). So, if any other IM client uses this protocol (in simple words, a protocol is a set of rules and regulations or dos and donts or hows and hownots that are considered as a standard by respective bodies, in connection with connection, communication and data transfer between two computers) they can be in touch with a GTalk user.

So, is there any other IM that uses XMPP? There are a lot. Jabber’s messaging technology is based on this. Thus we can use any Jabber client (like Psi…but there are a lot now since its open source.. Gajim, Jabbim, Miranda, Spark, Tkabber, Pandion, Exodus, Mchat, Jeti , Pidgin, etc etc). The iChat, which comes with Mac also uses XMPP.

(some of these IM clients (eg. Pidgin) support multi-protocol and hence thy are compatible with most of the IMs like Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, etc)

Is there any advantage or disadvantage in using some other application to chat with a Google user? One major advantage of using an open source client is that its code is open and we can make sure that its not spying on us. Another advantage is the extra features many other clients offer. For example the Psi offers lots of emoticons and more status message options. If it is open source, nobody else is putting their head (server) into your affairs or sniffing your passwords.

The major disadvantage is that we can’t use voice chat. But that is still the case with Google Talk Labs edition too. So, if one is not into voice chat, there is choice.