Chat Back
A few days ago, Google added AIM support for Gmail. Arguably, that’s not the most shocking news ever, but it may change the way people chat online.
With all the different chat services offered (AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, etc.), many people have been using Pidgin to be able to speak with all their friends using just one client. This has its ups and downs, of course, because every time somebody new wants to chat with you, another window jumps up like popcorn popping. It’s a lot of clutter and kind of annoying.
This new Gmail feature has possibilities. If they kept me logged in all the time, and never disconnected me, then the messages that pop up when I’m away could just be placed in a queue for my next visit. It’d be nice if the different conversations were tabbed like the different pages on iGoogle so as not to clutter up your screen. We’ll see where they go with this.