IM’s total lack of standardization has probably annoyed just about anyone using it at some point in time. Who wants to run a different client for every other friend? Jabber was supposed to fix all that, and really, it does. The problem is that with AIM and ICQ and MSN and Yahoo! all fighting for your packets, there’s a lot of momentum to overcome.

That’s where Google Talk comes in. They are dedicated to open standards (aka Jabber) and have the muscle to get it done. I’ve used PSI, a Jabber client that supports gateways to all the “other” guys, and now it works with Google Talk too. Here’s the important settings I used to hook up, and a shot of the roster:




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