Google Talk Guru is an “experimental” Google Labs service that allows you to chat with a bot to get information you’re looking for. What kind of information? Sports results, weather, definitions, translations, etc.

Again, this is nothing new, but Google does tend to have more information at their disposal than just about anyone else on the planet. So perhaps this chatbot will be more useful than the ones I used in 1997. To try it out, here are the rules:

1. Sign into a chat client that supports Google Talk

2. Send a chat invitation to guru@googlelabs.com or click the “Invite myself to chat with Guru” link below.

3. Find guru in your contact list and send chat queries to guru

Remember too that just about a year ago, Google bought Aardvark, a startup that also used chat to answer questions. I assume this is more like doing a traditional Google Search query, but still, something to think about. Related: what the hell is Google doing with Aardvark? Anything?

[thanks Steve]

Google has announced an iPhone version of Google Talk which is simply an iPhone-ized browser-based version of the Google’s text chat application. This means you can’t talk over the Interwebs but you can tap out halting messages to your friends on the iPhone’s screen and, thanks to Safari’s tendency to clear pages randomly, you probably won’t enjoy a sustained conversation.

When the App store finally launches expect about 500 VoIP solutions for the iPhone on the first day. Until then, sit back, think of England, and enjoy your browser-based Google Talk while it’s fresh.

Google has announced an iPhone version of Google Talk which is simply an iPhone-ized browser-formatted version of the Google’s text chat application. This means you can’t talk over the Interwebs but you can tap out halting messages to your friends on the iPhone’s screen and, thanks to Safari’s tendency to clear pages randomly, you probably won’t enjoy a sustained conversation.

When the App store finally launches expect about 500 VoIP solutions for the iPhone on the first day. Until then, sit back, think of England, and enjoy your browser-based Google Talk while it’s fresh.

A couple years ago, I became a member of a crowdsourcing outfit called Cambrian House just as it was getting started. The premise of the site is basically that you submit an idea for some sort of web-based service and then other members of the site vote on your idea. The best ideas get funded and then you can work on certain projects and gain a percentage of whatever profit the idea makes based on how much you put into it, and so on and so forth.

Well I remember one of the members of Cambrian House pitching this very idea — an instant messaging program that translated what you type on the fly, effectively breaking down language barriers the world over. Everyone went ape-shit and thought it was a great idea. I’m not sure if it got funded or not but it turns out the Google is now doing the exact same thing with Google Talk.

The feature works by adding a translation bot to your Google Talk conversation. So if I’m chatting with Pierre in France, I’d add the English to French bot and he’d add the French to English bot. I’d send messages to my bot and he’d send messages to his. Both of our bots would spit out whatever we were trying to say in the other person’s language. There are currently 24 bots available and you can build your own if you’re not satisfied with what’s there already.

Looks pretty cool so far. The big issue here will be how accurately the translations are handled. Apparently Ars Technica ran into some glitches when trying out the service but this thing just dropped and I’d expect it to improve over time.

Google Talkabout: Merry Christmas, God Jul and 圣诞快乐 [Google Talkabout] via Ars Technica

Previously available by invite only, mundu is now available to the rest of us.

It allows you to use your Yahoo!, Google, MSN, and AIM accounts with ease.

Emphasis on “ease.” I was up and running and logged in on my iPod Touch in under a minute. Very, very simple stuff here.

You’re able to be logged in to more than one service at a time and you can make your own status messages and remove contacts directly. It also handles smileys.

Best of all, there’s nothing to install. Just point your iPhone’s browser (iPod Touch, too) to iphone.mundu.com and you’ll be good to go.

Mundu IM for Apple iPhone [MobileWhack]

File Transfers

Files and folders can be sent to Google Talk friends by clicking the “send file” button. There are no limits on file sizes or type, and the recipient will see a preview of the image within the chat session. Both users must be using the actual Google Talk client, however, for this feature to work. See left image below.

Voicemail

Voicemails can now be left for friends who do not answer calls through Google Talk. Unlike File Transfers above, this feature does not require that the friend use the Google Talk client. In that case, they’ll receive an email with the message attached as an audio file. Voicemails can be up to 10 minutes long, and messages can be left for people online without calling them directly by clicking the down arrrow from any profile card or chat window. Voicemail will also automatically kick in after 4 rings. See middle image below.

Music Status

If you are listening to music while logged in to Google Talk, you can show your contacts what you are listening to by selecting “show current music track” from your status drop down menu. This is only for “supported music players” but they do not say what players are supported. See far right image below.

Note that the Google Chat client is, ridiculously, available only for Windows machines.

The new program, called Gmail Chat, will let Gmail users exchange text messages with others without having to log onto a separate chat program, making instant messaging simpler and more integrated with the e-mail program.

From anywhere in Gmail, the user can see who is available to chat. The program will also allow users to store instant-message conversations.

As of 10:15 PM PST there is no mention of this on the Google blog.

Of course, this is the risk that everyone talked about with Gtalkr and Meebo – the big guys can turn off the API, or just do it themselves.

Thanks for sending me this link Steve.