Google Talk Available Early

smash writes "Google's new IM service is already live. All you need is a Jabber-compatible Instant Messaging client (such as Apple's iChat, or gaim), and a GMail address." This should answer, at least in part, all of the speculation that has been flying around the net over the last couple of days. Update: Many users have been eager to let us know that Google Talk in indeed live.

Re:Gmail

[Malyven]

It may not be 100% public, but as far as I can see everybody has 50 invites, and it resets everyday.

Steps...

[Anonymous Coward]

-- For iChat, just enter the information above.
1. Add an account, select "Jabber" as the protocol.
2. Your screen name is everything before the '@gmail.com'.
3. Server is 'talk.google.com' as listed above.
4. Click "show more options" and make sure "use TLS if available" is checked. Leave "Force old SSL" and "allow plaintext..." unchecked for now. Connection port should be 5222, connection server should be blank... if not just 'talk.google.com' without the quotes.
5. Ta-da! Just login and you should be good-to-go.

All the trouble and... no one's online. Anyone wanna break it down why I should use this thing?

Re:ugh, throw it on the heap...

[principor]

You can use Trillian [trillian.cc] and probably even use GoogleTalk without the ad words.

http://www.miranda-im.org/

[Mustang Matt]

There's another nice jabber client for windows available here http://www.miranda-im.org/ [miranda-im.org].

It supports AIM, ICQ, Jabber, IRC, MSN and maybe some others.

Re:can't get on

[Trip Ericson]

Yeah. Just put the part before the @ in the username box. That'll let you on.

At least, it let me on.

Re:can't get on

[Tedddee]

just use the first part for your username, "me"

Re:can't get on

[Anonymous Coward]

your user name doesn't include the '@gmail.com'.

Re:can't get on

[Ratbert42]

Just use "me" as the username, without the @gmail.com. I got on with GAIM just fine.

Re:can't get on

[Anonymous Coward]

Fields:

Username: Gmail logon WITHOUT @gmail.com
Server: talk.google.com

smash's world: I'm almost slashdotted right now!

[sootman]

(Thirty-odd comments and the site is little slow. Just in case...)

I'm on Google Talk right now.
Google Talk = Google's new IM service that they're announcing tomorrow.

All you need is a Jabber-compatible Instant Messaging client (such as Apple's iChat, or GAIM), and a GMail address. Digg this, NOW!

WELCOME SLASHDOT!

Server: talk.google.com
Username: [e-mail] **OR** [e-mail] (pick one)
Password: yourpassword

Note: If you can't login, try to turn off 'Secure Messaging' or 'Encryption'... etc.

-- TRILLIAN USERS: Someone just told me that they got it working with Trillian, but I can't verify this. Just go to Trillian's plugin page on their site and download the Jabber plug-in, install it, and configure a new connection as below:
"server : talk.google.com
port : 5222
Use legact SSL for connection : not checked"

How to set it up with GAIM on Windows/Linux, or Adium on the Mac:
-- For iChat, just enter the information above.
1. Add an account, select "Jabber" as the protocol.
2. Your screen name is everything before the '@gmail.com'.
3. Server is 'talk.google.com' as listed above.
4. Click "show more options" and make sure "use TLS if available" is checked. Leave "Force old SSL" and "allow plaintext..." unchecked for now. Connection port should be 5222, connection server should be blank... if not just 'talk.google.com' without the quotes.
5. Ta-da! Just login and you should be good-to-go.

Another user reports the following:
"weird, I've never sent you email from my gmail, and now that you're on my buddy list on google talk, it autofilled your email address, and alias on my gmail"
-- The "/me" command works too, even on iChat. "/me says hi" translates to "smash says hi" or whatever if you're not familiar!

Feel free to IM around with fellow GMail users just by adding their addresses to your list! I'm not sure how long this is going to work, but let's make the best of it.

UPDATE: I'm online right now, give me a hollar if you're able to login! I'm talking with someone I added to my list. :)

Re:ugh, throw it on the heap...

[DA-MAN]

Encryption? Like, good SSL-based encryption? Do you know how many people use AIM or Yahoo Messenger without encryption? Do you know how many use it with their university or coffee shop's unencrypted wireless service?


If you RTFA, you will see that talk.google.com requires TLS to connect. TLS is basically SSL, with negotiation for clients that don't support SSL. However without enabling TLS you will not be allowed to connect to Google Talk Server.

IM Client - Mac OS X

[nighty5]

I've been using http://adium.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net] for a while now, it totally rocks.

Re:IM Client - Mac OS X

[remove office]

incidentally, Adium was just updated today as well.

Adium is a fasat and free instant messaging client which supports AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, Yahoo! Japan, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Novell Groupwise, and Lotus Sametime. Adium supports beautiful WebKit message display, tabbed messaging, encrypted chat, file transfer, and more. Give it a try; you won't look back.

oh, and it's based on gaim too.

Re:ugh, throw it on the heap...

[slavemowgli]

While we're on the topic of encryption, let me say that while gaim-encryption is nice, there's an even better solution, namely Off-The-Record messaging [cypherpunks.ca] (OTR). It's available as both a GAIM plugin and an AIM proxy server (for other clients); Adium X (a multi-protocol IM client for OS X) also has built-in support for OTR.

Definitely worth a try if you value your privacy and don't want every rag, tag and bobtail reading your IM conversations with people.

AP Press Release

[Volcane]

some news agencies are quoting a AP press report:

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=3757295 [kron4.com]

Re:ugh, throw it on the heap...

[Red Alastor]

You can use Trillian and probably even use GoogleTalk without the ad words.

And you can use any e-mail client to access gmail without seeing the the ad words.

Re:opinion and some links

[Anonymous Coward]

Could you please speak english?

If this is the way you talk on IM no wonder your friends ditch you.

automatically adds your gmail contacts

[adpowers]

I've been using Google Talk for a little while with my Gmail account and iChat. One interesting thing I noticed is every time you send an e-mail in Gmail, that person is automatically added to your buddy list as "Not Authorized" (where users I add are "Waiting for Authorization", at least until I talk to them). This is kind of annoying, since there are lots of people I contact using Gmail that I know will never get Jabber (for example, a mailing list e-mail address).

Other than that, it seems really neat. Oh, also, icons and offline IM don't appear to work. If someone knows how to get those to work, I'd be interested to hear it.

Andrew

PS: You can jabber me at [e-mail]

Kicked out

[chrisbro]

Myself and a buddy of mine just got kicked off. Think they found out and shut it down? Any others having the problem?

Re:Gmail

[Omnieiunium]

I noticed that as well. Heck you do not even need invites anymore, just check out this link - https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount [google.com]

405: Not Allowed

[dtfinch]

I logged in earlier, but now I'm blocked.

Re:Great

[WilliamSChips]

I'd let you add me, if it weren't for the fact that they're now giving me 405 errors :(

Basic instructions for Psi

[darrylo]

For those people using Psi:

• Use your full gmail address for the Jabber ID.

• Check "SSL encryption to server".

• Check "Allow Plaintext Login".

• Manually specify server host/port: talk.google.com, port 5223.

• Set proxy if needed.

You will get SSL cert warnings, but you can get rid of them via the "Ignore SSL warnings" checkbox (but do so at your own risk!).

Getting around the "Not Allowed" message

[Anonymous Coward]

You can still log in to the server! You just need to fudge it a little.

In Gaim's "Server" field put in gmail.com.

But, in the "Connect server" field put in talk.google.com.

Now, connect :cool:

Re:Gmail

[atam]

It will only set up a Google Account which currently does not allow access to Gmail.

Specific Gaim Instructions Here

[MicroPat]

Here are the exact settings that are working for me as of this current timestamp:

Gaim: 1.5

Protocol: SILC
Screen Name: [Google Account username]
Network: talk.google.com/Gaim
Password: [Google Account password]
Alias: [Blank]

For "Show More Options", use the defaults.

Good luck!

There is a review online check it out !

[pedrobeltrao]

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2005/08/23/googe-talk -review/ [downloadsquad.com]

Re:ugh, throw it on the heap...

[Spetiam]

You must be thinking of Trillian encryption, which, last I checked, is snake oil. Gaim-encryption [sf.net] uses a reasonable implementation of PKI... the key is supposed to be passed in the clear, hence its designation as the "public key." It's still not trusted unless you can verify the key's fingerprint with the key's owner.

Just do a search for "public key infrastructure" (PKI).

Re:Steps...

[AndreiK]

For gAIM, I found these steps worked: Screen name: Your account name, withoug the gmail. Server (The first one): is JUST 'gmail.com' Resource is whatever, I'm using 'talk' Connect Server: is 'talk.google.com' That should do it. And DONT click register. Just click save and log in.

Re:Kopete

[dJCL]

Used my gmail address for username, same pw.
On the second Tab I checked the first 3 boxes and set the server to talk.google.com with port auto set to 5223.

I had an error with qca tls on connection, but an apt-get install qca-tls later I was online.

Now if only all my contacts would get over to google messenger we would be set...

JCLoony [is at] gmail [you know the rest]

MSN, Y!, ICQ through iChat - here's how

[Lord Satri]

Here's how you can connect to all 5 IM protocols with Apple's iChat.

http://allforces.com/2005/05/06/ichat-to-msn-throu gh-jabber [allforces.com]

It works flawlessly and yes, it uses Jabber :-)

Still works - changer server to gmail.com ...

[ashlux]

I've got mine setup in gaim as:

Screen Name: ashlux
Server: gmail.com
TLS: checked
Port: 5222
Connect Server: talk.google.com
And it works just fine.

Trillian Instructions

[NickCatal]

I posted instructions on using Trillian with GoogleIM [nickcatalano.com] on my site.

internet telephony too

[Anonymous Coward]

The Guardian has a blurbish article [guardian.co.uk] including a quote from a Google exec on the new service. The article mentions that Talk isn't just IM; it also includes Internet telephony.

Miranda-IM settings

[aok]

- close miranda
- go to plugins folder and make a copy of the jabber.dll to gtalk.dll
- start miranda
- username: gmail username without the @gmail.com
- password: gmail password
- Login Server: gmail.com
- Use SSL checked
- Manually specify connection host checked
- Host: talk.google.com
- Port: 5223

This works as of this posting.

openssl dll's also needed

[aok]

I forgot to mention to get these dll's and put them into the Miranda folder (not the plugins subdirectory):

http://jabber.au.edu/miranda/openssl097d_dll.zip [au.edu]

Re:Google tomorrow?

[DJStealth]

You can NOW DOWNLOAD GOOGLE TALK [google.com] Just got this message

[2005-08-23 23:13] gmail.com: The broken link has been fixed. Thanks for being our first users!

Do it yourself invites

[chefmonkey]

You don't need to ask someone for an invite anymore...

https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsMailSignup1 [google.com]

Re:Does Anyone Know: Why Jabber?

[ashlux]

Jabber is an open protocol and XML-based.

Read some more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabber [wikipedia.org]

Can't add non-gmail users to contact list

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't add jabber addresses of contacts on other jabber servers. it seems that gmail blocks messages from other servers too. That kinda sucks.

Developers!

[GraZZ]

The Google Talk developer's page [google.com] gives a good overview of Google's short-term plans for GTalk, such as partnering with Earthlink and Sipphone (or federating as they call it)

"It's like the Federation of Planets on your Star Trek program."
"Ohhhhhh"

Re:IM Client - Mac OS X

[wandazulu]

I completely agree with you...as soon as I fired it up I though that it was much cleaner than Fire, and when I saw all the options (they have a separate website at AdiumExtras [adiumxtras.com]) I was hooked. I love the customization...I now have a Hobbes dock icon and the sounds from a Japanese train station. Awesome!

iChat/Google Talk supports video conferencing

[Clith]

I just spent about 1/2 hour video chatting with a friend after clicking on his Google Chat video icon in iChat. Hm, that is a rather unweildy phrase. What do you call chatting with someone in iChat via Jabber on Google's Server? how about iGoogleChat? :-)

Well then, I clicked on the video icon in my iGoogleChat buddy list to start a video chat with my friend, and it worked just fine. User experience and video qualkity were the same as "native iChat". Not sure who's "fault" this is -- iChat for managing to send video presence info through Jabber, or Jabber for supporting video presence. Whoever is responsible though: well done.

Re:405: Not Allowed

[Packets]

I logged in earlier, but now I'm blocked.

I dug down into the help documents, and there's a bit of a strange thing you have to do, you have to set up your username/server as such:

Username: stephen.thorne
Server: gmail.com

but you have to then go into the advanced options and set the 'connect server' as such:

Connect Server: talk.google.com

This will allow you to connect properly, and the 405 error will go away.

Re:clue to easter egg in client? "play wumpus game

[sp1der]

After a bit more investigating, you can add the gmail user, er bot, [e-mail] and type "play" in the chat window to play the classic wumpus game.

Re:There goes Philosophy point #2

[Barrakketh]

From the same page:

"* Full-disclosure update: When we first wrote these "10 things" four years ago, we included the phrase "Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat." Over time we've expanded our view of the range of services we can offer -- web search, for instance, isn't the only way for people to access or use information -- and products that then seemed unlikely are now key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn't mean we've changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects)."

Re:Google tomorrow?

[13bPower]

Double click the titlebar of google talk to dock it inside the google desktop v2 side bar. Niiiice.

Re:clue to easter egg in client? "play wumpus game

[onosendai]

rumor has it - invite [e-mail], then IM it 'play'

Re:Great! This is absolutely freaking great!

[Anonymous Coward]

True, but they don't allow gmail users to add jabber users from other servers. Also they block any sort of communcation (chat or message) from other jabber servers. Doesn't seem very open to me.

Re:Whats the point?

[Paleomacus]

The about box in the windows client says that it includes audio components from Global IP Sound [globalipsound.com]. I don't know anything about the Jabber protocol's capabilities but maybe the whole voice chat thing is the selling point?

Re:clue to easter egg in client? "play wumpus game

[focitrixilous P]

Yeah, it works. Not as good as the terminal version, though. I can copy&paste part of a game:

wumpus.game: BATS NEARBY!
YOU ARE IN ROOM 6
TUNNELS LEAD TO 5 7 15

SHOOT OR MOVE (S-M)
Nick: m
wumpus.game: WHERE TO
Nick: 15
wumpus.game: YOU ARE IN ROOM 15
TUNNELS LEAD TO 6 14 16

SHOOT OR MOVE (S-M)
Nick: m
wumpus.game: WHERE TO
Nick: 16
wumpus.game: YOU ARE IN ROOM 16
TUNNELS LEAD TO 15 17 20

SHOOT OR MOVE (S-M)
Nick: m
wumpus.game: WHERE TO
Nick: 20
wumpus.game: I FEEL A DRAFT
YOU ARE IN ROOM 20
TUNNELS LEAD TO 13 16 19

SHOOT OR MOVE (S-M)
Nick: m
wumpus.game: WHERE TO
Nick: 19
wumpus.game: YYYYIIIIEEEE . . . FELL IN PIT
HA HA HA - YOU LOSE
SAME SETUP (Y-N)

Yeah, it's a nice little game. It lacks the long text discriptions of the bsdgames version, no mention of falling to the center of the earth to see if you stop there.

Re:ugh, throw it on the heap...

[Anonymous Coward]

According to Google, it is not encrypted.

12. Can you tell me more about Google Talk and privacy?

"Google Talk currently does not encrypt chats or calls. But we are working hard to make many improvements to Google Talk while it is in beta, and we plan to fully support encryption of chats and calls before our official release."

Re:This (may) sucks

[humina]

I set up a jabber server to try and see if I could talk to my gmail IM. Took me forever and it looks like the google talk won't let you connect from an outside jabber server. I found people talking about opening the googletalk servers here:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-talk-open [google.com]

I'm going to recommend that people post on it to request that google open their network to the full jabber community instead of keeping it locked up.

Re:Consolidation

[humina]

And google's jabber won't accept connections from other jabber servers making it a closed network. Think aim only running an open protocol. This just means that gaim doesn't have to reverse engineer anything. It's still not open to the jabber community.

Re:Jabber interoperability

[humina]

http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html#service_ 4 [google.com] makes it look like a post launch bump.

Re:GoogleTalk + Dark Fibre = Internet Phone System

[oneandoneis2]

How come they are one of the most opaque companies on wall street in telling their shareholders what's going on? How come all their projects are so top secret despite the fact they end up just being another jabber knock off?

Because one of their competitors is Microsoft, who have a long history of finding out what their competitors are going to do, and then either beating them to it or making it very hard to do.

Google is so ubiquitous it's easy to forget that, in many ways, they're still the little guy in comparison to some of their competitors. Keeping quiet about what they're doing is a valuable survival stategy, they'd be idiots not to use it.

Re:Gmail

[Nutshell_TA]

You don't need invitations anymore! now everyone can get one by simply signing in here: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount [google.com] Enjoy!

Re:Whats the point?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure which of these are open: http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html#protocol s [google.com]:

Google Talk supports the following standard voice codecs: PCMA, PCMU, G.723, iLBC. We are also evaluating the Speex codec. We also support codecs from Global IP Sound: ISAC, IPCMWB, EG711U, EG711A

Re:Now spy on your friends!

[TheRealJFM]

"Exactly! Google will now have a reocrd of: 1. Your web searches 2. Your email 3. You im conversations If google were the government would you be afraid?"

From the Privacy Policy [google.com]:

"We do not store any of the content of your text or voice communications in our logs."

So no.

Re:Now spy on your friends!

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhuh, you forget to mention the next paragraph:

When you use Google Talk, we may record information about your usage of Google Talk, such as when you use Google Talk, the size of your contact list and the contacts you communicate with, and the frequency and size of data transfers. Information displayed or clicked on in the Google Talk interface (including UI elements, settings, and other information) is also recorded. We use this information internally to deliver the best possible service to you, such as improving the Google Talk user interface and maintaining a consistent and reliable user experience. We delete all personally identifiable information from our logs after a period of time reasonably necessary to do so. We do not store any of the content of your text or voice communications in our logs.

Because even we don`t have that kind of storage, I would finish that sentence. Why would you quote the paragraph that says what they don`t intend to store, and not the one that lists what they do intend to store?

Anyway, read the *entire* thing before using this service. The parts about the transfer of data to others is especially interesting. You will be notified... Great, ofcourse if you notify google after changing its privacy policy, or the new owner of the data that you want your data removed, what will they say?

Also read the law enforcement/"when we may disclose your information" part. It says google will preserve and disclose "personal data" if it feels like following the law or preventing abuse. This isn`t just the stuff they already collect, given this text they might very well start collecting the contents of your communications if the get a warrant to do so... So how is end-to-end crypto for jabber getting along?

Re:Closed network

[ChronoWiz]

The developer page seems to suggest that the pre-arranged peering is only for their voice service, as a way of interoperating with other pay voice services and maybe landlines. It doesn't say anything about IM, so I'm going to hope that the current non-compatibility with other Jabber servers is just a feature they haven't finished yet and not a deliberate policy decision. If it is deliberate they are really shooting themselves in the foot, and this will end up being "just another IM service", instead of bringing about the IM unification that it could.

Re:Google tomorrow?

[adamfranco]

Huh, so is that where the downloads for Linux & OS X will be?

Linux/OS X(X11): http://gaim.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
OS X: http://www.adiumx.com/ [adiumx.com]

I don't use Windows, so I haven't been able to try Google's client, but I honestly can't see why anyone would want to use anything other than Gaim or one of its derivatives (i.e. Adium). One Gaim client can support unlimited [I am assuming] accounts using AIM, Jabber (GoogleTalk), Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, Zephyr, Novell Groupwise, .Mac, Lotus Sametime, and somthing called Gadu-Gadu. Why bother with different clients for each messaging protocal?

- Adam

Google Talk Over SSH

[image]

For those that are stuck behind a firewall, I wrote up a detailed, step-by-step guide on using Google Talk over SSH. This includes instructions for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX, and focuses on the official Google Talk client, iChat, and Gaim.

You can find the guide at Google Talk over SSH [unto.net].

Enjoy!

Re:Google Talk Over SSH

[blofeld42]

Google's jabber server is also listening on port 80, which most firewalls let through.

No muc?