Chat

Google's Official Chat Extension Frees Chat from Your Browser Tabs, Lets You Start IMs and Hangouts from Anywhere

Submitted by admin on Wed, 02/22/2012 - 19:30

Chrome: Google's chat feature is useful for sending quick IMs and starting video chat sessions, but you can only view it when you're on a Google page like Gmail. Google has released an official Chrome extension that detaches it from your browser, allowing you to view it no matter what web page you're viewing. More »

 

Gtalklet Adds the Google Talk Web Interface to Any Tab in Chrome

Submitted by admin on Tue, 08/23/2011 - 07:30

Chrome: Google's Talk web interface is nice, but annoyingly confined to your Gmail tab. Gtalklet puts a little Gtalk box on any site you want, so you don't have to switch back and forth between tabs just to chat. More »

 

Coming Soon: Real Time Chat In Google Chrome

Submitted by admin on Wed, 06/22/2011 - 10:05

Coming Soon: Video Chat In Google ChromeOpera is a supporter of WebRTC as well.

Following Microsoft’s accusation of Skype, it looks like the search giant has video chat plans of its own.

Turns out, Google is integrating its WebRTC software into the Google Chrome web browser, which will allow users to talk in real-time without having to install Skype or similar chat clients.

Rian Liebenberg, Google’s engineering director wrote:

Until now, real time communications required the use of proprietary signal processing technology that was mostly delivered through plug-ins and client downloads. With WebRTC, we are open sourcing the voice and video engine technologies from our acquisition of GIPS, giving developers access to state of the art signal processing technology, under a royalty free BSD style license. This will allow developers to create voice and video chat applications via simple HTML and JavaScript APIs.

According to TomsGuide, WebRTC uses two audio codecs, iSAC for high-bandwidth connections and iLBC for narrow bandwidth connections, which were obtained with the acquisition of GIPS. As for video part, Google will use its own VP8 codec.

Since WebRTC is an open source project, other web browsers will have an access to all the audio and video capabilities as well, making the following announcement even more exciting.

Chrome OS "panels" and Google Talk Chrome Web app go cross-platform

Submitted by admin on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 15:00
google talk web app for chrome
Back when we had the chance to play with some more mature builds of Chromium OS, one feature we particularly liked was its slick, panelized Google Talk funcationality. It later disappeared, replaced by a Gtalk app in the Chrome Web Store -- but while Google talks about 'the same platform everywhere,' the Gtalk Web app only worked on Chrome and Chromium OS.

What about all us Windows, Mac, and Linux users? Well, now we can get in on the action, too, even though the Chrome Web Store loudly proclaims ** THIS APP REQUIRES A CHROME NOTEBOOK **!

While that's not totally true anymore, you do need panel functionality, which your version of Chrome probably doesn't offer yet. However, if you have a recent Chromium build you can add the command line switch --enable-panels to enable basic panel functionality. There's no about:flags entry for this yet, so you'll have to use the switch for now. If you need help, just check our tutorial on how to add command line switches to Chrome.
 

Talkita Lets You Chat with Users Browsing the Same Sites as You

Submitted by admin on Mon, 12/20/2010 - 17:00

Chrome: If you've ever been on a site and wanted a more immediate form of communication than, say, comments can offer, Chrome extension Talkita lets you live chat with users that are currently viewing the same web site. More »