Since others are buzzing about the new Google instant messaging service ahead of tomorrow's planned release (like Om Malik and Niall Kennedy (who has created a how to)), I thought I would state that, yes, it is running the XMPP protocol (that is to say the Jabber protocol). I have tested it with iChat's Jabber capability. Anyone want to test, I am stowe.boyd@gmail.com on the talk.google.com server.

I have been predicting (begging?) for years that Google would come out with an instant messaging system -- although I had presumed it would be based on the Picasa Hello client they already own -- but jumping to Jabber is a really smart move. It sticks a thumb in the eye of AIM, MSN, and Yahoo -- the three market leaders with various closed networks. And it could represent exactly the sort of market destabilization necessary to end the stupid and painful fragmented world that those three have bequeathed us. I am going to get all my contacts to switch to Google Talk as soon as I can.

I have to presume they have embedded Talk functionality for the new Google Desktop tomorrow. I wonder how Nerdvana-like it is?