What's New on Google Talk?

Group Chat
You can now invite multiple people to chat with you in a group using the Google Talk Gadget. When you're chatting with a friend, just click on the "Group Chat" button to invite one or more friends to join the conversation.

New Emoticons :-)
We've added a nifty emoticon picker to the Google Talk Gadget, which lets you show off your :-) and your :P in three different, animated styles. Just click on the smiley in the lower right corner of your chat tab to check them out and pick your favorite look.

Popout support and Flickr slideshows
You can now do more with the Google Talk Gadget. In addition to putting the gadget on your Google Personalized Homepage, you can now pop out the gadget into a separate, small window anytime. This way you can navigate to other websites and still keep your contact list and chats open. And just like running the gadget on your homepage, this way of using Google Talk is completely web-based, and requires no download.

If you have your own webpage or blog, you can also add a button to your site so your visitors can pop out the Google Talk Gadget when they visit your page. If you want them to chat with you, just list your username next to the button and ask visitors to sign in and add you as a contact. To add the button to your page, just copy this script into your site's HTML:

<script src="'http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/button'"></script>

We've also added some new media capability to the Google Talk Gadget. In addition to viewing YouTube videos and Picasa Web Albums, you can now also watch Flickr slideshows in your chats.

Google Talk Gadget
You can now add Google Talk to your Google Personalized Homepage. The Google Talk Gadget lets you see your contacts and chat with friends right on your homepage, and it doesn't require a download. You can even add the Google Talk Gadget to your own webpage or blog by pasting a single line of code into your site.

There are a couple of new features to try out in the Google Talk Gadget. If you paste a URL from YouTube or Picasa Web Albums into your chat, the Google Talk Gadget will let you preview the videos and photos right in your conversation.

Watch this short video to get a glimpse of the Gadget at work:

orkut integration
Google Talk makes it easier than ever to chat with more of your friends. If you use orkut, Google's free social networking service, you can chat or place Internet phone calls with your orkut friends using Google Talk. orkut friends will automatically appear in your Friends list, and you'll find out instantly if you've received a new orkut scrap. Learn more

Offline Messages
Now if your friends have chat history enabled, you can send them messages even when they're not online. Just enter a message into the chat window as you would normally, and they'll get it the next time they sign into Google Talk. In Gmail, offline messages can be searched and organized -- just like instant messages in their chat history. Learn more

File Transfer
With this top requested new feature, you can send unlimited files and folders to your friends through Google Talk. There is no restriction on the file type or size and the peer-to-peer transfer is fast and reliable. Learn more

Voicemail
If your friends aren't around to answer your call, you can leave them a voicemail message instead. Just record your voice after the "Meep" and your friends will get an email to their Talk contact address with the voicemail attached as an audio file. They can play your message when they check their email and save it for as long as they want. Learn more

Music Status and Music Trends
Listening to music while chatting on Google Talk? Now you can let your friends see what you're listening to by selecting "Show current music track" in your status menu. Your status message will change when your song does!

You can also choose to contribute your music tastes to Google Music Trends, and check out what Google Talk users are listening to across the world. Learn more

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