Google's GTalk Supports XMPP

IceFox writes "On Google Gtalk blog Mike Jazayeri announced open federation for the Google Talk service. Nothing to do with Star Trek it means they now support open federation with any service provider that supports the industry standard XMPP protocol. Although they don't specifically mention AIM compatibility, at CES GTalk was shown with buddy icons so it can't be that far away."

Comments

More Google Talk Resources

[eldavojohn]

For those readers interested in customizing Google Talk, I would suggest looking at Customize Talk. It has a lot of great downloads.

If you want to be able to chat to your friends on AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Chat, Jabber, IRC, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise, Zephyr or Google Talk, then I suggest you download GAIM which works on virtually any platform. There are some configurations that need to be set to connect to Google Talk networks.

And, if you're really into this stuff, join the Google Talk Open Group on Google Groups and help people fix bugs or figure out how to kill bugs that you might have!

Re:More Google Talk Resources

[trolleymusic]

And if you've got a mac, Adium is a fantastic, cute and open-source client that does all that GAIM stuff too :)

Re:More Google Talk Resources

[eldavojohn]

If you delve deeper into the Customize Talk site, you'll find a page that has instructions on how to fiddle with the interface of your Google Talk Client using a resource hacker.

Another option would be joining Google Talk Open asking if anyone has perhaps a cut and dry simple version of Google that does what you're asking.

Hope this helps you in your quest for the featureless talk client. I think GAIM can be configured to be pretty minimal but I don't think it gets stripped down as far as you seem to have in mind.

Re:More Google Talk Resources

[Bungopolis]

Don't forget that Adium "does all that GAIM stuff" because it uses libgaim.

Re:More Google Talk Resources

[moranar]

Don't forget that Adium "does all that GAIM stuff" because it uses libgaim.
In the best Unix tradition of decoupling function and form.

Nice, but still some flaws

[GORby_]

Apparently, there are some problems with certain servers (malformed XML), and there's no support for chat rooms yet. This is not really google's fault if that's true, since it's the other server that are sending out the malformed XML, and google seems to use strict checking...

I guess the lacking features will be added later, but it would have been nice to have that already.

Re:Nice, but still some flaws

[Anonymous Coward]

Google's server lacks support for chat rooms, but that doesn't stop you accessing the chat rooms hosted by other servers via Google Talk.

So long as your client supports the Discovery aspects of the XMPP protocol (Psi supports this) you can log into your Gtalk account using it and browse the capabilities on other services.

This also means that while Google hasn't gotten their AIM integration done yet you can add an AIM (or MSN, Yahoo, etc) transport from another server to your Gtalk account and access all your contacts on those services via Google Talk. You can even then log back in with the Gtalk client (so as to be able to voice chat to other Gtalk users) and still communicate with those AIM users.

Re:Nice, but still some flaws

[bartc]

Apparently, there are some problems with certain servers (malformed XML), and there's no support for chat rooms yet.

That's no longer the case actually, Google has changed their server to be less strict about the well formedness of the XML stream.

Linux?

[kote-men-do]

We should really slap google (by means of some sort of "internetworked slapping device") for not supporting desktop linux... Gtalk, gvideo store, their desktop search appliance, ... No linux versions for any of these!

Very disappointing if you ask me.

Re:Linux?

[Bungopolis]

Seeing as Linux has such a small share of the desktop market it doesn't seem fair to "slap" them for not supporting it when their resources would be better spent elsewhere. In any case, rumour has it that there will be a video store player for Linux, and since libjingle is available under a Free license, and is being integrated into Gaim, there isn't much point in Google producing a linux version of their client, which is really just a proof of concept client anyway.

Re:Linux?

[bedroll]

You were saying about gtalk?

Aside from that, you have to acknowledge Google for making in-browser apps that work exceptionally well in FireFox. This means that they aren't showing favoritism to one OS or another for in-browser apps. (though they seem to favor FireFox over IE, I can't blame them for that either though :) The problem with a lot of their stand-alone apps is that they are either purchased or created as one of their programmers personal projects.

Also, the gvideo service seems to allow you to use their Flash player for most videos. Macromedia has a Linux version of Flash, so I'm not sure it's accurate to say that it's unavailable. Google Earth is more of a toy than anything else, you can get most of the usable functionality via Google Local in-browser on any OS.

Re:Linux?

[brunes69]

As far as GTalk goess, Google is going oto great lengths to make their protocol totally open, and are even hiring people to work on it in already existing messengers like Gaim and Kopete. I agree 100%, why re-invent the wheel when we already have these awesome clients with protocol plugin suppoer? Way to go Google for not shoving another crappy proprietary IM client down my throat.

Re:Lacks voice support on Mac and Linux

[Jordi Bunster]

True. It is but a matter of time, though. As soon as libgaim starts supporting it via libjingle, support will probably trickle down to Adium on Mac OS X, and obviously to Gaim on all platforms it runs on.

Reposting comment

[eSavior]

Here is a comment I put on the Newsgab story (Found it trying to find people talking about the google talk announcement)

I doubt the others will follow. Open networks compete on things like features reliability, but closed networks compete on things like the ability to talk to people you know. So, by MS keeping a closed im network if I want to talk to someone on it, I cant just add them to my list I have to start up a account and get a compatible client. (I am sure I am not telling you anything you didnt know, but it is important to realize open networks mean a better instant messenging experience because it changes the rules of competition) The opening of the servers will probably not make much news, but really its a huge event. A open im network (with many users) is something that has been long coming and hopefully googles move to embrace it will allow for many more users to see the light.

So as I said, this is a huge move, heres hoping the news media doesn't downplay it. I see some commenters complaining about lack of features, well this move should make you happy then! Just jump to a server with alot of transports/services (*cough* ursine.ca *cough*) and you can still talk to all your gtalk buddies. Thats the greatness of open networks, servers competing on features NOT users.

Re:Reposting comment

[linuxmop]

It's nice that Google has enabled s2s support, but I don't really see this as a big move. The lack of Google Talk support is (was) not holding back federated XMPP. The lack of users is. And frankly, there is simply no motivation for most users to switch to a Jabber-based system right now.

For Jabber to become the dominant IM service, it would require a critical mass of users. The best way for that to happen today would be AIM or MSN to support XMPP with s2s since it would not require the millions of existing users to change their behavior.

This is unlikely to occur. We have heard that Google is planning on somehow providing AIM support. However, based on the few articles out there that discuss this, it sounds like you will have to have an AIM account in addition to your XMPP account. This absolutely defeats the purpose of "combining" the networks, since you will still have two handles: your Jabber address, and your AIM screenname. I could already do that with Jabber transports and/or Gaim/Trillian multi-IM support.

Here's hoping that the news reports got it wrong and that AIM users will be able to communicate natively with XMPP users. If not, Google Talk will be a failed experiment.

Buddy Icons

[FooAtWFU]

Uhh, I don't know if you realize this, but plenty of other protocols besides AIM support buddy icons- Yahoo! Instant Messanger, MSN Instant Messanger, Jabber (which is XMPP itself)...

AIM may be coming or it may not but don't rely on the buddy icons to tell you.

Re:Buddy Icons

[IamTheRealMike]

And buddy icons are a pretty essential feature for any modern IM network/client anyway. It's things like this that the Jabber guys never really understood or targetted ... if you look at the JEPs which have actually been formally accepted on top of the core protocol, an RPC framework is one of them, buddy icons are not. I believe the Jabber buddyicon support coming up in GTalk is simply reusing a hack Apple added for iChat.

Re:Buddy Icons

[Randall311]

No no no. Buddy Icons must mean that AIM is on the way... w00t! n00b pwned! Shoutout to my hax0rs.

Re:Buddy Icons

[bigblueball]

Actually, I spoke with Gayle Laakman at CES (the engineer working on Google Talk's upcoming buddy icons). They have nothing to do with AIM interoperability. http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/google-talk-news /33539-google-talk-buddy-icons.html However, she did say that the interoperability between Google Talk and AIM would be similar to that between iChat and AIM; iChat users can add an AIM screenname and vice versa. In other words, it doesn't appear that it will be using XMPP with AIM (no big surprise there).

Re:Buddy Icons

[ClearlyPennsylvania]

It will use jep-0153. The same one that iChat uses.

I noticed this by chance yesterday

[Kraegar]

Was setting up chat via jabber to some co-workers, and found that I didn't need to set up a jabber.org account, I could talk to them directly with my google talk account. Worked pretty seamlessly (To both @jabber.org accounts and @bgmn.net accounts), including a chat room. I was using GAIM as a client.

Re:Lacks voice support on Mac and Linux

[protomala]

Kopete 0.12 from CVS/SVN and PSI already have support for voice, and it works.
This is the beauty of open-source, google instead of building a google talk client for linux give everbody a lib for voice and is using open standards (jabber).
Nice move of them.

Title should be: Google Talk supports XMPP s2s

[Intosi]

Google Talk was always XMPP client to server (c2s), but they started accepting open federation recently (yesterday, as far as I know) using the XMPP server to server protocol (s2s).

How is SPIM handled?

[PornMaster]

While there's no shortage of SPIM on the proprietary networks, if federation means an increase in connectivity between disparate (and arbitrary?) IM networks, is there any trust process to keep rogue servers off of the network? Is it a matter of blacklisting/delinking?

Re:How is SPIM handled?

[Gadzinka]

Standard way to handle SPIM in jabber network is to silently drop messages from people not on your contact list. And the only way to be added to my roster is to get my authorisation first.

Of course, one could still spim me with authorisation requests containing relevant viagra/penis/mortgage/nigerian information in description, but nothing prevents you from doing the same on closed networks...

In the end, the only way to stop spim would be to use aproaches similar to mail: some bayesian aproach, with the distinction that everybody on my roster is whitelisted. After all, forging sender on XMPP messages is for all intents and purposes impossible -- Jabber, later standardised as XMPP uses callback for sender authentication.

Robert

PS Someone already asked abou it: SPIM is Spam-over-IM

Two tin can's

[wangotango]

I've tried many of the most common voip applications.......
Most sound like two tin can's and a piece of string, when compared to Skype.
Skype might be proprietary, but they have all of the others beat by a mile.

Re:Two tin can's

[marco.antonio.costa]

Im sorry, I must digress. Although I didnt use skype, I think gtalk is crystal clear. ive used it as voice comm while playing MMORPG's and talked to my girlfriend while she was on dialup and a noisy line. no complaints here :)

Re:Two tin can's

[Tanaka]

Stop trying to use it on your 350Mhz celeron, with dial-up then.

Connecting to GTalk without using Google's client

[halr9000]

If you want an open-source, multi-platform alternative, as noted on the GTalk website, you can try Psi. Psi also has alpha "Jingle" voice chat support that is compatible with Google Talk. Read here for special instructions on how to connect to Google's server "natively", as opposed to over S2S.

GT works OK, don't use official client!

[Baloo Ursidae]

I guess the lacking features will be added later, but it would have been nice to have that already.

You have them, you just weren't trying hard enough. This should work with any capable Jabber client (Google Talk is not capable, nor is GAIM), but I'm using Psi as a example for lack of better alternative. Psi is also available for Windows, MacOS and Linux.

• Get Psi
• Follow the Google Talk Howto on their wiki
• Go to Psi > Service Discovery and enter, say, ursine.ca or one of the other IM Federation members nearest you. You should see at least a JUD, if not a few transports on any of those IMF member servers.

I just did the homework so you don't have to. Enjoy.

Re:Avatars

[uhoreg]

Sorry, photo in vCard is not the standard for avatars. In fact, there is no standard for avatars. (There are about three different "historical" JEPs for avatars.) In fact, vCard was only a temporary measure (temporary for the last five years), and this is going to be replaced.

Adium

[Jamie Zawinski]

I use and really like Adium, but the one major thing it doesn't do that GAIM does is IRC. Which is weird, since that's built in to libgaim (which Adium uses). And it's doubly weird since the Adium developers hang out on an IRC channel. Doesn't that make their heads explode? Guess not.