Via John Scalzi, I have discovered Google Talk, which is Google’s latest foray into Taking Over The World. (All I can say is: Google Coffee? It’s coming. Seriously, Starbucks’s days are numbered.) Google Talk is an online-chatting service that uses the Jabber protocol.
Mac users can’t download the Google Talk client, since it’s currently Windows-only, but we can use iChat (which is wonderful, because who wants to use a whole different app anyhow?). Turns out—oh, the things I learn during random moments—that I can use iChat for MSN and Yahoo Chat too. It’s one-stop shopping for online chatting!
I was having trouble setting up Jabber in iChat, until I found Google’s helpful page on setting up Google Talk in iChat. (Hot new food? Arugula-Google-a. Hot new car? The Hybrid Google 3000. I’m telling you: it’s one-stop shopping for Evil Overlords!) I tried to add Scalzi to my list, so as to test this out. At the moment, all it says is, “Waiting for Authorization.” No idea what that means. Do you have to approve people adding you to their lists? And if Scalzi doesn’t approve, what does that mean? For my ego, I mean. Not for Google Talk or Jabber or iChat or whatever.
Anyhow, if you’re trying out Google Talk, I’m D i a n e . P a t t e r s o n >at
Your request popped up while I was eating dinner. Don’t worry, I approved you. I mean, really. Who wouldn’t?
Yes, in Jabber the other person has to approve you in order to add them to your list. This is so you can’t simply add someone to your list and (say) spy on them without their knowledge, since the chat system provides feedback about whether they’ve been idle, or they’re even logged on, etc. I infer from this that this sort of spying has been a problem with older forms of IM (e.g., AOL’s), though I’ve never heard of a concrete case.