Google Talk Instant Messenger to Launch This Week   - 1,837 Views,

Says the LA Times, “According to a person who has seen the service, Google plans to let users chat using more than just their keyboards. Like similar programs from competitors, Google Talk also will let computer users with a headset have voice conversations with other computer users with headsets, this person said.”

They also cite a Google spokesperson as confirming that Google would be releasing a new product this week, but she declined to name the product, or confirm that it was Google Talk.

Said John Tinker, an analyst with Think Equity Partners, in explaining the move by Google into the instant messaging space, “Like any big company, they’ve got a brand name, and they’ve got to keep extending it,” and adding that “Because the reality is, there’s not a whole lot of difference between their search [engine] and anyone else’s.”

While the LA Times claims that “Google faces an uphill battle in persuading people to change instant messaging programs. These services are useful only if friends and family members also use it, and competing services from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft have been available for years”, I’m not so sure (sorry, Chris, you know I love ya). I think that if Google ties their Google Talk into their Gmail program (ala “this person who sent you email is on Google Talk now”), that could be a real winner. And let’s face it, while it is waning, Google does still have some cache, and if they pull it off as they did with Gmail, Google Talk could become, at least for a while, the messenger of the uber-cool black turtleneck crowd.