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Google is one of those companies that gets immidiate attention for every little move they make. They are praised even if something they’ve done is not that innovative. Sometimes it gets a bit tiresome, but mostly Google rumors are quite entertaining.

But there is a rumor that I hope is true, Google Talk, which is supposed to be a IM client with VoIP capabilities scheduled for release tomorrow. The one thing that makes this sound like a good thing to me is that it’s supposed to be Jabber based. If anyone besides the established IM companies can push Jabber into the mainstream it’s Google.

I think:

• there will be a web based (searchable) archive (perhaps part of Gmail)
• the feature set from Hello will be migrated over time (and Hello will be discontinued)
• the client will not have ads, but the (web) archive will almost certainly have ads
• it will have VoIP (as reported all over the place) with the ability to call normal phones in the future
• it will work behind NATs without any configuration
• it will work with the other IM networks (through transports)
• entertainment features (avatars, games etc) will be very limited from the beginning (but they are very much needed in the long run for mainstream adoption)
• RSS will be included in some form (so will a Blogger client)
• location will play some part
• video chat will take a while

I hope:

• it will play nice with other Jabber servers/clients
• any extensions to Jabber are open
• it ends the trend of only supporting Windows

I’m not sure what the killer feature(s) will be. You cannot start a IM service nowadays without something special. VoIP isn’t it, since everyone and their dog already have VoIP. A web based archive can be one part (I’m using IM from different computers so my logs are spread all over the place), and ad free client another. But neither of those are enough to start a migration from AIM, MSN, and Skype.

Let the IM war begin!

So ICQ5 is out. I’m still a little bummed out that Jabber, or any other open standard (are there any?), has taken off more. But the reality is that most of my friends use ICQ…

The UI seems a lot more faster. Before I heard the “uh oh” sound, waited a few (1-2) seconds and got the message window. Now it seems more instant :-). And now it’s possible to customize it to send messages using just Enter, and use Ctrl+Enter to enter row-break. For a long time I preferred Ctrl+Enter to send messages, but all the other IM clients I use (MSN Messenger, Skype, Sametime), use Enter to send messages.

ICQ5 is also featuring Push2Talk, which is all the rage now in the mobile world. A kind of walkie-talkie like functionality where you first have to page the other user to be able to talk to him/her, and then you just talk while you’re pushing a button, and the other user gets the voice message. I have only tried to send voice messages, not recieved any yet, but it seemed to work fine, even behind a firewall. I’m not sure yet which benefits there are, if any, using Push2Talk over “skyping”. On mobiles the advantage is much less bandwidth usage, but on normal computers with decent internet connection? I guess there is a difference, because when push2talking you probably use it in the same way as when you’re IM’ing, whereas skyping requires more active conversation without interuptions.