Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Google, Social Software, AOL, web 2.0
Gab your life away on Facebook and Google Chat with Gabtastik
by Drew Olanoff Jun 13th 2008 at 4:00PM
Facebook has put out their chat service, Google has Google chat. There's no desktop app for Facebook, but there is one for Google chat.Confusing, and annoying. It's also confusing and annoying to have to use those services in separate programs or multiple tabs in a web browser.
AIM is probably the most popular IM service known to man and woman, iChat for Mac...these are both desktop experiences.
Enter Gabtastik.
For Windows XP and Mac OS X, Gabtastik wants to take your browser chatting to the desktop where a lot us feels that it should stay. The program takes you to a page just like a web browser would to log in. It did seem a little slow to pull in Facebook data. That could be an issue.
You can switch back and forth between Facebook chat and Google, as well as change the opacity of the application itself so that it doesn't become an annoyance by overpowering your desktop. Make it invisible if that floats your boat.
This is a great way to not be tethered to either site via browser 24/7 and still be in contact with your friends who either are tethered or are cool enough to use something like Gabtastik. The downside is that you still have to have AIM or iChat up along with this if you use them too.
Gabtastik calls itself a "Site Specific Browser" for web chat services, so will other services be included as they pop up as well? Let's hope so!
Gabtastik is not the first to do pull these services away from their respective sites, Digsby handles it, and so does a sweet Firefox trick.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
anrichp said 5:10PM on 6-13-2008
Digsby ftw! , this cannot compare:(
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julian said 5:14PM on 6-13-2008
I am currently using the beta version of Adium and it has facebook support and Gtalk
would not be surpriced if pidgin had it for windows/linux
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Nic Moon said 5:28PM on 6-13-2008
http://code.google.com/p/pidgin-facebookchat/
Pidgin can also handle it.
Although it's not the best it is similar to Digsby's usability.
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Josh said 5:12PM on 6-13-2008
I'll stick to the latest Adium Beta, thank you very much. Works better than the official client itself.
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L7 said 11:45PM on 6-13-2008
digsys good but its a memory hog :(
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