A little known service was "launched" by Google today, and no, it's not fookink Google Earth (get with the times people, Google Earth is just re-branded software which has been around for years). Nope, today Google released Google Talk which is Google's first step into the IM (Instant Messaging) world. By the word "launch" I mean a Beta Launch, this was only released today and not all the functions / features are there yet. My guess is they're just testing the protocol with this release client and will add more functionality / features to it as it progresses. What I like about this latest offering from Google is what Google itself is well known for…. a lack of in-your-face advertising. So far so good, there's no advertising to speak of except Google's branding.

The only catch is that you need to have a gmail account, and seeing as how gmail is also still beta, you need to be invited by someone who already has a gmail account. And that's poo. I have quite a few invites and if you want to see what this thing is that's spreading all over the 'net like wildfire give me a shout, but only if i know you.

Cheers!