Google have officially released Google Talk in beta this morning, proving huge speculation yesterday that it was about to happen.

Their ‘big thing’ is the apparently high quality voice capabilities.

It looks like a pretty normal IM client - although there were rumours that users would be able to chat with MSN Messenger and AIM users too, you can’t. You need a GMail account to use it.

However, anyone who wants one, just contact me - I have about 50 invites. Maybe then you can add me and I can try talking to someone!

Update: here’s a very quick guide to broadcasting your music over Google Talk to others.

Update 2: there is already a resource for Google Talk on Wikipedia, with information about a game you can play in GTalk. These people don’t waste time do they!

Update 3: InsideGoogle has a rather good review of Talk, with screenshots and information on how to emded Talk inside the new Google Desktop 2 sidebar.

Google Talk (via BBC)