More Time with Google Talk

Now that I’ve had some friends log in to Google Talk, I’m noticing some other nice touches in the interface. Yes, it’s very plain, but they’ve put features where they really count.

First, you can rename your contacts, which I mentioned before. So I renamed one of my contacts with “firstname lastname”, and it’s displayed as such. But when they message me, it’s just their first name.

Then I noticed that multiple messages sent in a row by the same person are kept together under one heading. I’ve got some friends that couldn’t type a complete sentence if their life depended on it, and this will save my sanity.

Finally, I noticed that Google saves part of your most recent chats by default (similar to how GMail keeps all your mail). Say I finish a conversation, close the window (which will lose the conversation in any other client), and they send me a couple follow-ups … the window opens with the previous conversation still there (but a lighter shade of grey). That’s a very clever touch.

Now I just need to get more of my friends using it. Should be easy … GMail is no longer invite-only.

Update: More fun discoveries ... You can "dock" your open message windows to the side of the screen, and by clicking the title of the window, roll it up so it takes less space. Better yet, you can dock all your open message windows together!

Who needs features when you have functionality?! Have you ever used even half of the features in your favorite IM client? I think this is going to go very far with the "set it and forget it" crowd. Tweakers will always want "moremoremore".