Google Talk pops out of gadget land and gets a few new features

Google has updated the Google Talk Gadget with a few new features today including a Pop out feature, a button for websites, Firefox sidebar integration, and video and image displays. These significant enhancements add a lot to the way the web is heading with widgets, gadgets and keeping applications online and off the desktop. Keep in mind that these new features are only available for the Google Talk Gadget, and not the standalone desktop version.

The Google Talk gadget Pop out feature is similar to the Talk in Gmail feature. Click on the Pop out link, and a small new window will spawn where chats will take place.

Another feature is targeted at website owners and bloggers is integrating Google Talk into their own web locations. This is done by adding a line of code which produces a button on a website. When clicked, this button will produce a conversation in a pop up window.

But perhaps the coolest new feature is the ability to open up Google Talk right in the Firefox sidebar in a simple two step procedure! Oh ya, this is pretty wild, and saves a lot of time when chatting back and forth while working in browser windows, which of course is what Web 2.0 is all about.

1. Right click on this link "Google Talk Sidebar", and save it into your Bookmarks Toolbar.
2. Then open the Bookmarks menu bar from Firefox and select "Properties". In the menu, check the box that says "Load this bookmark in the sidebar".
3. When you open the bookmark, you will instantly load the Google Talk gadget in your sidebar.

Last but not least, we have some YouTube and Picasa Web integrations. Users can now send and watch YouTube and Picasa Web Album slideshows, as well as Flickr slideshows in Google Talk by simply pasting the links into your chat windows. Bye bye desktop applications.

Tags: button, flickr, gadget, google, im, photos, talk, video, web, website, widget, youtube