Google Talk pops out of gadget land and gets a few new features

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Blogging, Web services, Google, P2P

Google Talk pops out of gadget land and gets a few new features

by Chris Gilmer Apr 4th 2007

Google has updated the Google Talk Gadget with a few new features today including a Pop out feature, a button for websites, Firefox sidebar integration, and video and image displays. These significant enhancements add a lot to the way the web is heading with widgets, gadgets and keeping applications online and off the desktop. Keep in mind that these new features are only available for the Google Talk Gadget, and not the standalone desktop version.

The Google Talk gadget Pop out feature is similar to the Talk in Gmail feature. Click on the Pop out link, and a small new window will spawn where chats will take place.

Another feature is targeted at website owners and bloggers is integrating Google Talk into their own web locations. This is done by adding a line of code which produces a button on a website. When clicked, this button will produce a conversation in a pop up window.

But perhaps the coolest new feature is the ability to open up Google Talk right in the Firefox sidebar in a simple two step procedure! Oh ya, this is pretty wild, and saves a lot of time when chatting back and forth while working in browser windows, which of course is what Web 2.0 is all about.

Right click on this link "Google Talk Sidebar", and save it into your Bookmarks Toolbar.
Then open the Bookmarks menu bar from Firefox and select "Properties". In the menu, check the box that says "Load this bookmark in the sidebar".
When you open the bookmark, you will instantly load the Google Talk gadget in your sidebar.

Last but not least, we have some YouTube and Picasa Web integrations. Users can now send and watch YouTube and Picasa Web Album slideshows, as well as Flickr slideshows in Google Talk by simply pasting the links into your chat windows. Bye bye desktop applications.

Tags: button, flickr, gadget, google, im, photos, talk, video, web, website, widget, youtube

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

p-diddy said 3:08PM on 4-04-2007

yeah, but none of my friends chat with google talk. It's all AIM for them. :-/

Bug said 3:29PM on 4-04-2007

Jabber > Any other IM.
@P-Diddy: Use a gateway so you'll still be using Jabber :P.

p-diddy said 5:04PM on 4-04-2007

@bug

Wait, I can use jabber to connect to a Jabber-->AIM gateway so everyone thinks I'm using AIM but I'm really using Jabber? Where/How do I find said gateways?

-p-

p-diddy said 5:08PM on 4-04-2007

Never mind. Found my answer (at http://www.jabber.org/user/userguide/#usegateways).

That completely changes my opinion of this and google talk. Thanks, Bug!

-p-

p-diddy said 5:20PM on 4-04-2007

Doh, I spoke to soon: What you're saying is that i need a jabber client that can then connect to googletalk if necessary. But you aren't saying THIS is a jabber client. So back to square one: great that it loads into my browser bar, but no one to chat with.

:-/

moulari said 3:43AM on 4-05-2007

great and now pls add an easier Method to connect to ICQ/ AIM MSN and so on.

I wished they would do a firefox sidebar gadget for the Google Notebook with Drag n' Drop functionality

nileshkas said 6:43AM on 6-16-2007

i want to google talk grdget
please you give me the email adress......
&download google google talk grdget

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters