I’ve recently become quite fond of how Google Talk is embedded in Gmail.
I’m sure everybody has noticed this before, but the way that Google Talk displays not only status indicators but also one-liners from your friends is really cool.
Just today I found out — through Gmail chat — that my friend Sarah has laryngitis. She didn’t IM me, she just put the word “laryngitis :(” beside her status.
And a few of my contacts have been using the status “one-liner” to provide more detail than that. My friend Jason Boog, for example, advertises his blog on the status line. I haven’t seen her online recently, but Casey McKinnon from Galacticast has a robust status message that I think (I’m recalling from memory here) includes the logo from her videoblog.
This is nothing new to kids who spend all day on Facebook, where it’s considered bad form not to keep your status updated at all times. But it may be news to professionals, many of whom keep Gmail open all day long. So this is just one more way to keep your name out there. Take advantage of it.