Jingle All The Way

For me, the most exciting thing about working on Google Talk is having the opportunity to help develop an instant messaging network based on open standards. By using XMPP, an open standard protocol, we give Google Talk users the choice of what client to use, and make it easy for developers to implement their own clients and innovative services on top of our network. From day one, everyone has been encouraged to connect to the service with any XMPP-capable client they choose.

Today, two major advances have been made in the openness of our voice capabilities. This morning, the Jabber Software Foundation (JSF) introduced two new proposed extensions to XMPP, known as Jingle and Jingle Audio. These enhancements describe how to write software compatible with Google Talk's voice features and have been introduced into the JSF's standards process where they'll be reviewed and improved by the XMPP community. To make implementing these extensions even easier, we've released a library we call "libjingle."

Libjingle is the very same code Google Talk uses to negotiate, establish, and maintain peer-to-peer voice sessions, packaged as a library for other developers to use in their own projects. By incorporating Libjingle into your project, you enable its users to voice chat with other users of the Google Talk service.

I'm really thrilled to be able to release this source code to the IM development community. This holiday season, it's Jingle all the way!

Sean Egan
Software Engineer

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A Googlewhack Engine?

A few nights ago, some of us from the Kirkland Googleplex went to see the funny Googlewhack Adventures playing in Seattle.

The next night, when Jonas (a teammate with a very unique 19 letter GMail ID!) sent me an IM, I was pretty sure that our names together would make a Googlewhack. But I was wrong. A few minutes later, another teammate, Jon IM'ed me and I found myself a Googlewhack. Since then I've discovered two other Googlewhacks by combining my name with the name of a contact, including my wife's!

A friend of mine told me today that these are not technically Googlewhacks because there is no dictionary link for them. But maybe that's because we're still in Beta!

Reza Behforooz
Software Engineer

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Internet Voice Campaign

We're big believers in the future of real-time communications on the Internet. It's only a question of when, not if, all our communications (whether in front of a computer or on the go) are done using Internet-based communications services.

However, old habits die hard. The traditional phone system has been in use for over a century and making the majority of consumers aware of the new alternatives and their benefits is critical to gaining mass adoption. That's why Google decided to join a new industry organization known as the Internet Voice Campaign. The goal of the organization is to raise consumer awareness about VOIP and its benefits.

You can read more about the Internet Voice Campaign on this press release from the Von Coalition. If your organization is involved in Internet communications services, we encourage you to consider joining.

Scott Ludwig, Software Engineer

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