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Google Talk Claims Openness, Lacks S2S Support
rm writes "This LiveJournal entry by Nugget quite well sums up the disappointment in Google Talk among many Jabber users, caused by the service's complete lack of XMPP server-to-server communication support: '...Google has uncharacteristically missed the real strength of the Jabber design. Despite all their self-congratulation about open communications they've only embraced the smaller, less important aspect of the Jabber openness.'"
The main problem with Google Talk isn't what parts of what protocols or whatever it implements.
The main problem is that it's a complete piece of crap in comparison to all other IM programs out there. Yes, I know, it's only "beta", but so is damn near everything else from Google and they all were released looking far more polished than this turd.
First off, the program is ugly. Extremely ugly. Here, have some white. And while you're at it, here's some white on white. Not enough white for you? That's ok, here's some more white. Variety is the spice of life. Often I see programs that are so extreme that they hurt my eyes. This one falls on te complete opposite end. It's so plain-looking that it nearly puts me to sleep.
Secondly, those stupid colored balls next to the username to display status. They are nowhere near obvious enough at a quick glance. There needs to be some sort of icon change. This is compounded by the fact that if you put up an away message and someone then sends you an IM, they do not get your away message back as a response. That just further confuses the issue and makes people think you're ignoring them.
Next up, is the popup hell. I wouldn't have so much trouble with this one if it wasn't on by default, but it is. Minimize a window. Next time you receive a message on that window, a popup alert displaying that message will show up on the bottom right of your screen. Now imagine this with multiple conversations, and you get my point. Yes, I can turn it off. Would Joe Average figure that out? Probably not.
Next, the lack of fonts. It's possible that I didn't look deep enough into the program, but I found no way for an individual user to change their font, font size, or font color. This is a popular enough feature that it makes no sense not to include it. If you're talking with multiple people, and some are using a distinct font, it is a good visual cue for keeping the conversations in order.
These are just a few of my gripes with Google Talk. It's just not a product that should have been released yet.