GTalk - Adding Contacts

This is totally kewl.

My bud already had GMail, so I send him an invitation to GTalk. I simply typed his mailbox name ("@gmail.com" already filled in) into the invitation form, hit Next, then Finish.

I went to IM him on MSN Messenger (where we had been in conversation for an hour or so), to tell him to read his email. By the time I got back to MSN Messenger, I see a GTalk popup

Hello.

Thanks to GMail and GTalk integration, the GTalk invitation went straight into GMail. When he opened his email, it was a single click and it installed. No download, no restart system.

Obviously (and I say this with some irony), you do not want unknown and untrusted applications installing automatically, in most cases. Some people (and if you're of this mind I support your concern) may not go for this at all. But if GTalk and GMail are this tightly integrated, there are hopefully some security precautions involved. It's not an unknown application routing an invitation thru an unknown email system, it's GTalk sending an internal message to GMail. It's fast, and it works.

In other words, if your bud has GMail, and if he trusts your judgement, you are seconds away from having another GTalk contact. If you don't have GTalk, get it for yourself. It has its limitations, but it's lightweight, it installs easily, and it works.

Here is yet another version of

I spent longer typing this than the scenario described actually took.

Try it.