Google Talk

Google has released the first version of Google Talk, an IM/VoIP client. It's neat for its close ties to Gmail (new email notification; same account name/password; automatically add gmail friends to Buddy List). On the other hand, it is not quite as full featured as my current Jabber client (Exodus) or Jabber server (jabber.louisville.edu). This wouldn't be a problem (because Google Talk uses the Jabber protocol) other than that currently the talk.google.com server doesn't yet seem to accept connections from external Jabber servers and there is no way in the current client to "dial out" to other Jabber addresses (it will instead say, "Hey, I'll try sending that person a Gmail invitation by email").

It would be cool just to see more people use a Jabber-based client (as opposed to the crappy spyware-added, closed protocols). Also, the "Jabber bridge" Google's page promises should be up soonish, so at that point all things are groovier.