GOOGLE TALK!

So this morning, while I was doing some user acceptance testing of a new system at work, I was GChating with my friend Andy. As usual, I was lamenting the fact that GChat doesn't blink when you have a new IM, because it was lowering my productivity (I had to check back and forth between what I was doing and the GChat window to see if Andy had said anything). Andy informed me that he used Google Talk to cure just that. I said that I had it at home, but didn't use it much because I don't use my home computer much. I didn't have it at work because you can't easily use most IM services through work because of our firewall. Andy said this was similar to GChat and worked fine. So I installed it - it is the CAT'S MEOW!!!!

Andy had to go run some errands, so I IMed Patrick and forced him to get it too. He got it and then he pressed the "Call" button on there to call me. I answered the call and we were like "what does this do?" Then he said he could hear me typing!!! So I spoke "Hello?" and he typed "I can hear you!!!" He didn't have a microphone so he couldn't talk back, but I yammered at him for a while.

Then I had some meetings and stuff so we had a hiatus... then just a while ago Patrick and I were IMing again and I saw a voicemail option! So I left him a "voicemail" - basically it's just an audio file that is sent to your gmail! It's super cool! And there is a British woman who tells you to leave a message at the "meep". It is too frickin' funny. I absolutely love it. Now I'm trying to get my sister to download it so we can talk while she's in Spain. And by "trying" I mean "sent her one email and she's currently downloading it on the slow Spanish internet". SWEET! Up with Google Talk!!!

The one drawback: the smiley faces don't turn like they do in gchat. But they do turn blue...