Its been hogging the digg website, this Google Talk. Once there were instructions on how to use and set it up, I downloaded Gaim (for Windows), and tested the still ‘unofficial’ instant messenger service from Google.
Here are the instructions to get yourself connected.
NOTE: Set your server to ‘gmail.com‘ (without the quotes), and set the Connect server to ‘talk.google.com‘ (without the quotes).
I’ve also tested Google Talk successfully on another Jabber client, Exodus, which is half of the size of gaim (less than 3MB). The hitch is, you need to have friends/buddies geeky enough to chat with.
UPDATE: It’s official. With an internal email alert system, very light system resources use, and at only 900kb, this is definitely a prime IM contender.