Rob Williams - Orangejack

Well I said I was looking forward to trying out Google Talk and I've enjoyed it so far. I've had two conversations: one with a friend in Spain and one with a friend in Little Rock. Both calls were clear...or at least just as clear as Skype.

I started my conversation with my Spanish friend using Skype. Our signal bounced in and out sometimes and once we had to restart the conversation because the signal was so bad. We switched to Google and went for 30 minutes without any real problems. A couple blips here and there.

Comparing Google Talk to Skype, I'd have to say that Google right now is clean and easy to use. I like that it integrates my GMail account and contacts in there. That's a bonus. What I'd like to see is the ability to conference call like Skype can do. I really like the ability to conference call with this technology.

Not only can Skype conference call, but you can call phone numbers for a cheap price. That's only significant for me when I travel out of the US because it makes it cheap to call home. In the US I have a national mobile plan with Sprint and at home use Vonage to call the US and Canada free.

My wish list for Google Talk: add conference call ability, maybe add the ability to call phone numbers cheap, and allow me to chat with other IM accounts like AIM, MSN, etc (a la Trillian). I love convergence and I love Google's clean and functional products.

UPDATE: I just realized Google Talk CAN get your Trillian account in there IF you have Trillian Pro. So if you pay for trillian, you can get Trillian in Google Talk. Bummer.