Google creates its own chat client!

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:14 am

http://www.google.com/talk/about.html

It's pretty cool, no ads, voice over IP, closing window wont lose the whole conversation etc...

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:39 am

I'm waiting for the archival controversy, even if Google isn't archiving the chatlogs

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:43 am

time to add another button for gtalk Bri?

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 8:52 am

I would like to see a review of this sometime, if someone who signs up wants to give their impressions. GMail too since you have to have GMail

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 9:16 am

Anyone know if this goes through their servers? I don't have Gmail because they read your emails - I have to assume they read your chat messages.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:08 am

Steveness wrote:

Anyone know if this goes through their servers? I don't have Gmail because they read your emails - I have to assume they read your chat messages.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that it does.

I pretty much assume all my communications are being intercepted anyway Smile

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:22 am

as long as you're not sending kiddie porn or plotting a terrorist attack you should be alright. The government screens all forms of communication, but it only listens in on identifiable threats.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 10:40 am

eddie_baby wrote:

as long as you're not sending kiddie porn or plotting a terrorist attack you should be alright. The government screens all forms of communication, but it only listens in on identifiable threats.

Yeah they only spy on the 'bad' people Laughing

Not that I really care all that much... If I ever get paranoid there is AES, RSA and ROT13 Smile

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:12 pm

I don't think you understand. Google seems to be much worse than any government organization at collecting information on people. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it seems like they're trying to collect all kinds of information (likes/dislikes, etc.) on people through their email and communications. They can use this for ads, but it's scary when one private corporation can know so much about so many people... then what happens if they get 'hacked'?

I just don't like it.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:20 pm

Steve - your posts relay that you think Google is hiring people to read your communication which I do not think is true. The technology that generates advertisements to match your email is likely no different than the Google Ad technology you see on many websites.

If you don't like it (which I can identify with, I am a bit paranoid myself) just don't use the service! Smile

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:24 pm

Besides, don't you use a credit card? Don't you use a cable box? Those companies gather and store all kinds of info, too.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:34 pm

I'm not too terribly concerned about g-mail, it's the best e-mail service I've had, and I've gone through 7 or 8. The Google Talk thing is kind of cool, but there aren't enough people I know with g-mail that are also on talk to make it really worth it, maybe when more people pick it up.

Just a couple notes on g-mail's more convenient functions, at least my favorite ones, are the sent folder which saves all your outgoing messages (I sometimes forget whether I've sent blah blah blah to blah blah and it's good to see exactly what I have and haven't done), and the huge storage space makes it so you can keep most the outgoing messages until you want to purge them. I recieve zero spam, anything which ends up in the spam folder is actually mail I wanted to recieve from several larger websites, and I can see why it ended up there.

It saves most e-mail addresses coming in and going out, once and a while I'll delete a message and forget to have gotten an e-mail address, this has been hugely useful to me in the past.

Anyway, other then the storage space and a few nifty functions it works exactly like a regular e-mail account for me, but the few bells and whistles that they've added make me prefer using their e-mail service.

Soulman Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 198 Location: DE

I love g-mail. The rich text feature I could take or leave, but it is nice to have sometimes.

The absolute best feature is the grouping of conversations into one message, no searching, no trying to find other, or old messages. If someone replies to you, it is placed under the same message in your inbox, with previous conversations. This makes life so much easier.

Also the 'no maximum storage limit' is pretty cool. If you go to their home page, it is ever increasing, so you really never have to throw anything out. (currently at 2529.132605 megabytes and counting)

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 4:01 pm

Oh yeah, I forgot about that feature. It also helps because your mailbox is much cleaner, any piece of a string of e-mails back and forth between you and someone else is under that one message heading.

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 8:56 pm

Steveness wrote:

I don't think you understand. Google seems to be much worse than any government organization at collecting information on people. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it seems like they're trying to collect all kinds of information (likes/dislikes, etc.) on people through their email and communications. They can use this for ads, but it's scary when one private corporation can know so much about so many people... then what happens if they get 'hacked'?

I just don't like it.

For starters, here is the low-down, straight from the horse's mouth. Believe it or not, I suppose (bold is mine):

Google Talk's privacy statement wrote:

What types of personal information do we collect and how do we use it?

Account information. When you use Google Talk, we ask for the same information that was requested when you created your Gmail account, including your first and last name, a username (which will be used for your email address) and a password to create your account.

Contents of communications and usage. The Google Talk software stores the most recent lines of your text chats locally on your computer. Google Talk does not archive the contents of your text or voice communications on Google's servers, and we will not archive such contents on our servers without your express permission and clear notification to all our users. We may relay content for users in some cases. Google employees do not access the content of any instant messages, voice transmissions, or files you send or receive, except as described in this policy.

Log information.

When you use Google Talk, we may record information about your usage of Google Talk, such as when you use Google Talk, the size of your contact list and the contacts you communicate with, and the frequency and size of data transfers. Information displayed or clicked on in the Google Talk interface (including UI elements, settings, and other information) is also recorded. We use this information internally to deliver the best possible service to you, such as improving the Google Talk user interface and maintaining a consistent and reliable user experience. We delete all personally identifiable information from our logs after a period of time reasonably necessary to do so. We do not store any of the content of your text or voice communications in our logs.

As for Gmail, their privacy notice is similar. Their employees do not access your emails. Their bots skim email for keywords associated with advertisements:

Gmail's privacy notice wrote:

# We will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission.
# We serve highly relevant ads and other information as part of the service using our unique content-targeting technology. No human reads your email to target ads or related information to you without your consent.

Your own usa.net makes no such claims in its privacy notice, for example.