GoogleTalk Has Launched, AOL's "Instant Messenger Guy" Suffers A Mild Panic Attack.

In the days and weeks to come, you will be able to use GoogleTalk to communicate with your friends over Instant Messenger, have live audio chat, and surely other cool features -- all with that cozy Google trademark to make you feel warm and fuzzy. The application has just launched, and I can tell you that after reviewing it for a few hours I've been able to notice a great deal about it.

For starters, it's surprisingly just like every other IM application on the market. The launch expectations have run very high for this new instant messaging client, but it's really not like you needed another application to install and make your computer even slower than it is right now, did you?

Like Yahoo! Messenger, it's tied to your Gmail account. Like Yahoo! Messenger, it offers voice chat. Honestly, I have yet to find out why to get goofy about it. Maybe you should download and install it for yourself and you can add me as a friend. Please don't send me a bunch of bullshit IM's though because I'll just close it forever and forget it was ever installed. Otherwise, I'll give it a 14-day trial to see what I think.

Mind you, the time is ripe for people to come up with creative hacks for the new application and this first one appears to allow broadcasts, MP3's, and podcasts over GoogleTalk. This is the internet equivalent of being able to call one of your friends and play them a song over the phone.

Woo hoo. Yay. Thrill me, people, don't give me leftover Won Ton soup and tell me you made Chinese food for dinner, mmkay?

As for the "AOL Instant Messenger Guy", he was last seen sobbing, pacing nervously, talking to himself and stuffing his face full of hot dogs at Pink's Hot Dogs on La Brea. His publicist could not be reached for comment, but in a press release has assured everyone that her client is "fine" and "is not worried about competing with a company whose logo looks like a gay pride necklace gone wrong."

Closing Stock Prices for Wednesday:

AOL Time Warner (UYE, NYSE): 26.36
Google (GOOG, Nasdaq): 282.57