Google Talk

So Google released it's much anticipated IM service today, dubbed Google Talk. I've been using it this morning and so far, I have to say I like it. As one would expect of Google, it's small, simple and bloatless. It does what you want it to do and seems to do it well.

Also, and this is my favorite part, it uses the open source Jabber protocol, which means you don't have to use the Google Talk client at all, you can use other clients out there that support Jabber. That's always been my beef with IM services... being tied to a certain client. It's like having to use a GE phone to talk to someone on another GE phone. Of course, you do have to have a Gmail account, but who doesn't have one of those nowadays?