IMO pretty much all of the features you are requesting are iChat features, not Google talk features. Please realize that as a jabber-based service, Google Talk will support pretty much anything that a client can transport via XML/XMPP to another client over jabber.

There is no standard for audio/video signalling over jabber, so that's why it only works between two iChat's, two Google Talks, or two AdiumX's.. Each client implements their own standard. Sure you could ask for Google to use iChat's implmentation in their windows client, but you know what? iChat's implementaiton of AV over jabber may not be very good for all we know! There is also no avatar standard finalized for jabber yet, and luckily iChat did not implement their own (possibly causing problems down the road)

The main feature that *GOOGLE* is missing with google talk is sort of the foundation of the jabber protocol -- inter-server messaging. I already have a jabber account. I have contacts on my roster that have accounts on many other jabber servers. Why has Google chosen to implement a standard protocol yet close other services out of their own? This makes no sense to me. Why should I have to log onto Google Talk to send a jabber message to my one or two friends who use it? I don't really expect anyone to write a Google Talk gateway for jabberd -- it would be stupid and pointless.

Google has made mention of this process of "Federation" where they intend to selectively link in other services, but it's ridiculous and unnecessary. Imainge if as a GMail user you could only exchange e-mail with other GMail users and selective other services that Google "Federates" with. Welcome back to the days of "Online Services" brother!

Google talk blows ass. Without the server-to-server functionality that is fundimental to the jabber protocol, Google Talk is just another IM service. Sure, they let you choose your client, but I'm afraid it may be too little to late for that. There are as many AIM (and multiprotocl) clients as there are Jabber clients anymore. Please, Google, live up to your own marketing.

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"I want, I want, I want..."

You can't always get what you want, but sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.

;-)

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Yay, an IM service that the network honchos haven't blocked (yet)! :)

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If you're really troubled by the lack of Mac support for Google's services consider this: Google can easily determine the OS of each client that connects to it - if anyone can tell you the true usage of an OS it is Google. Perhaps the market penetration of Macs is less than you think. Given that, market forces tend to dictate the services provided. Why spend extra time and money developing an extra - not to mention scarcely used - client rather than investing resources in other - & more widely used - clients. I mean, economics makes more sense than a nebulous credo to "do no evil".

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Here's the chat dilemma as I see it:

[This post is meant to say what SHOULD work, and has no regard for the techno-geek what goes on under the hood stuff. This stuff should be transparent and simple to use. Chat makers, do what you have to do to make this happen! This would be a golden opportunity for an extremely enterprising new company to SOLVE THE CHAT DILEMMA.]

1. All chats need to have text, voice, AND video capabilities for all chats, microphones, and webcams. This is a must.

2. All chats need to work with one another. It should be like email, where you can chat with anyone with any email address. Hopefully Google will fix this issue. I'm tired of having different chat accounts for different friends/family. I would dump them in all in favor of GTalk (it connects in about a second) if it could do this. And I plan to, if this happens.

3. Hopefully someone will come up with a way to use VOIP for free to talk to 1-800 numbers. I don't want to have to buy credits to maintain a minimum balance for Skype to call a number that should be free. The only reason I say this is because I only have a cell phone, and I don't want to use daytime minutes to call something that has, from the beginning of my life been FREE for house phones.

4. No one does design interface as good as iChat, which I would use exclusively if it had the right options. And no one has the customization like Adium, at least not the Big 3 chat clients or anything else on the Mac that I've seen.

5. Given that all chats will probably not work with one another in the near future (like email, cell phones, or land lines), all chats need to be able to incorporate all other chats into one, like Adium. If iChat had this feature, I wouldn't use Adium, although I do like it. The reason why is: Adium doesn't come with OSX and doesn't support A/V.

GTalk seems to bring nothing new to the table, at least not yet. There is nothing this chat has that other chats don't already have, and more. It seems to be buggy with Mac to Windows chat, and it doesn't have video capabilities.

There. All this yapping and I've fixed it in about 5 minutes.

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They can hide behind the 'beta' in the name. It's bare bones right now but they are smart. Start with the basics and improve from there. If they gave all of the features right away they'd have lots of problems to fix. Right now they are just focusing on chat and will probably add many more features later. Humm.... wonder if we'll get a PR bar to see how cool others are.

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Anyone else a happy camper with Adium? I setup my gmail account with ease. Alll I wish for in Adium is video.

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The "Help" errors you mentioned are sporadic but if you hit "reload" it should load the page just fine (atleast that's been my experience poking thru their FAQs this AM and experiencing the same problem)

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My only complaint with Adium is a lack of video chat. Otherwise I have never been happier with a messenging client. I tried iChat, but that was cumbersome, ugly and a pain. I tried Proteus, but that wasn't free. I tried AIM for Mac, but that was crap.

Adium does everything it should do. I almost couldn't be happier.

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It would be really nice of Google to open everything up and let the Adium devs add video and voice chat to Adium. Hell, Google pays some people to work on Firefox, right? How about Adium? That would be the best possible thing.

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iChat to Google Talk Windows client does not work:

http://www.mmilian.com/blog/?p=111

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Thomas is spot on here. Google is all about starting with the basics and building off of what they come up with.

I think a lot of people are underestimating the Google right now.

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Just use Adium ... it's awesome. :-D

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I too vote for Adium. I think it's the best IM Client on the Mac. Much better than iChat, with plenty more options. I wish they had a PC version, but for now Trillian Pro will suffice.

-- Elias

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It would appear that Google is working on a Mac OS X client anyway.... see http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html#platform_3 .

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I'd love to see talk.google.com accessible via the ftp port - 21 (a la AIM). Incredibly handy for chatting with clients from, say, behind a corporate firewall.

At least when said company has port 21 open.

Failing that, HTTP proxy access would be fine. (Haven't been able to make this work in Adium, et. al.) Actually, if anyone has managed to configure for this outside of Google Talk proper, by all means speak up.

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here's my Google Talk Mac wishlist: a frickin' MAC CLIENT already!! Jeez. The long version of the rant lives here:
http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000367055775/

and includes a rather winning quote from you, Laurie. ;)

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