ReadWriteWeb

Okay - have we all had a good long laugh at the digital cognoscenti who managed to get themselves infected by that Google Worm last week? Are we done yet? Apparently not. *Chortle.* *Guffaw.* Okay, now I'm done.

I'm painfully aware, though, that whatever laughs I'm having at the expense of those folks are going to come back at me in spades. The social engineering behind worms and viruses is getting smarter, and it's only a matter of time before something slips past my defences. I'll click on something I shouldn't; and that will be that.

Google Talk is an instant messaging client by Google with a small but devoted following of users. Just about anyone within the social media and tech realm could tell you great things about Google Talk and a lot of popular services support the use of Google Talk as a Jabber client. If you've been looking for a way to connect with more Google Talk users, especially those in your area, then head to GTalk Profile.

Interoperability between instant messaging (IM) clients is something a lot of users have wished for. More specifically, we wish it was standard and provided right out of the box instead of having to turn to third parties such as Adium, Digsby, Trillian, or Pidgin. Yet there seems to be a problem with the concept of interoperability for the companies of the more popular IM clients.

Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped noticed today that Google announced that it will be shuttering its Hello photo sharing and chat application next week. Hello was an instant messenger-like desktop photo sharing application that made it easy to send photos to friends via an encrypted connection. The Hello.com web page has been replaced by a shut down notice and the service will cease to work on May 15th.