Yes, Google have launched their own instant messaging client.
To be honest, if Google weren’t so good at taking the ideas of others, un-cluttering them, adding functionality and making them actually WORK I’d be getting pissed off by now.
I mean, who wasn’t stunned into silence when they learned of the 1 gigabyte limit they were offering with Gmail? The concept of their desktop search made perfect sense too. Google maps are great: good interface and simple to use. To be fair, since moving away from Internet Explorer and over to Firefox I’ve dropped using Google Toolbar and really only use Google as an internet search page.
They do have a fairly loyal following though and they’ve managed to capture the geek chic essence so beloved of the people that you find on sites like Neowin or Hard OCP or have their PC specs in their forum signature.
The program is still in beta and you need a gmail account to log in to it. Feel free to add koffdrop@gmail.com to your friends list – just don’t be an asshat if you do.