First there was the standalone Google Talk program, which at the time seemed like a crippled version of AIM and not all that useful. Then they went and integrated with Gmail and it became a much bigger deal. You could save your conversations in Gmail and chat without an additional program. Now the Talk service has a third way to access your contacts - you can add it to the Google Personalized Homepage (or your own website). They've also added a couple of features: "We've also added a few new features to make your chats a bit more colorful, like the ability to view YouTube videos and Picasa Web Albums photos in your chats. And just like many other gadgets, you can also add the Google Talk Gadget to your own webpage or blog."


No need to be logged into Gmail, and I already use the personalized homepage as a hub where I get tons of info at a glance. I can see the newest news stories, see if dave, TVSquad, or a handful of other blogs have posted new stories, get TV listings, and now chat with people in my Gmail contacts list. Awesome.