Opinions on Google Talk

Listened to Episode 9 of Diggnation on my train ride home yesterday evening, and among the first topic to be discussed was Google Talk.  Apparently, show hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose
weren’t too fond of having yet another IM client and the fact that this
“beta release” still has much to improve on in terms of functionality.

I like the straightforward interface, but I do agree that Google
should have made its GTalk client compatible with other IM standards
(much like GAIM). 
I’m even having problems logging in using other Jabber clients, like
iChat.  Or maybe that’s just the firewall at work.

At any rate, the true judge of this instant messaging client and
network’s worth is the user base.  And as it goes with instant
messengers, it’s usually the early adopters that dictate what would be
the IM of choice.  After all, messaging is a social
activity.  And people would definitely go for the network where
all (or most, at least) their friends are.

But anything related with Google gets so much buzz these days that
GTalk might just end up as the dominant IM client, as much as GMail has
taken over the global email space.