Lots of folks I've talked to at work have had mixed feelings about the recently announced Google Talk. The feelings are usually relief and disapointment in equal portions. Relief because Google hasn't shipped yet another application that redraws the lines of what that class of application should look like (e.g. GMail and Google Maps) meaning we have to play catch up. Disappointment because we actually expect better from Google.

You can see some of these sentiments from various folks at MSN such as Mike Torres in his post Competition & Google Talk, Sanaz Ahari in her posts Google Talk review and Google Talk pt II, and Richard Chung in his post Google Talk Blows.

Of course, Microsoft employees aren't the only ones underwhelmed by Google Talk. Doing a quick search of the blogosphere for comments about Google Talk leads me to lots of bloggers expressing ambivalence about the application.

The most interesting reaction I noticed was from Robert X. Cringely who was inspired to ask Has Google Peaked? in his most recent column. In the article he not only asks whether Google's best products are already behind it but also points out that they have become experts at Fire and Motion. Below is the relevant excerpt from Robert X. Cringely's column

Google plays on its technical reputation even though, if you look closely, it isn't always deserved. Many Google products haven't been revved since they were introduced. And while some Google products are excellent, some aren't, too.

Google likes to play the Black Box game. What are they DOING in all those buildings with all those PhDs? I'm sure they are doing a lot that will change the world, but just as much that will never even be seen by the world. For the moment, though, it doesn't matter because Google can play the spoiler. They offered a gigabyte of e-mail storage, for example, at a time when they had perhaps one percent the number of e-mail users as a Hotmail or Yahoo. And by limiting the Gmail beta, they avoided the suffering of both those other companies when they, too, had to increase their storage allocations, but for tens of millions of real users.

Now Google will do something similar for chat and VoIP with Gtalk, pushing the others toward an interoperability that undermines the hold each company thinks it has on its users.

In my original post about Google Talk I mentioned that using Jabber/XMPP was an attempt at a disruptive move by Google. Of course, it is only disruptive if its competitors like AOL, MSN and Yahoo! react by breaking down the walls of the walled gardens they have created in their various IM products.

I find it interesting that instead of trying to push the envelope with regards to the user experience in instant messaging, Google chose to 'punk' its competitors instead. I guess we'll just have to see how MSN, Yahoo & AOL end up reacting.