Dear friend with the ugly dog picture (you know who you are),
We begged, and we pleaded, and we finally got a set of thirty great pictures to give away free with Google Talk. You could have been a frog, a rose, a shamrock, a sun, or one of many other snapshots from the Google Holiday Logos, but instead you've chosen some picture of an ugly, ugly dog. Want to be something else? Go for it. You can set it to any .gif, .bmp, .png, or .jpg file. You can even set it to be a picture of your baby (who is in all likelihood cuter than that dog).
Lest you should worry that your friends using other clients will not be able to see your picture, you'll be happy to know that we've adopted JEP 0153. This is the same protocol used by iChat and Gaim 2.0.0 beta, which means that friends using these clients will be able to see your picture, and you'll be able to see their pictures.
On the off chance that you've forgotten how to set your picture, or you used a different client to set your picture, let's go through the steps. At the top of your list, you'll see your current picture - yes, that's right, the mutant creature that is the dog. Just click on the picture and you can select one of twenty-five other pictures from the drop down list. My favorite is the rose, but if you don't fall in love with any of pictures we've provided, that's ok - just click "More pictures" to pick any other picture off your computer.
Now, I know that deep down - very deep down - you just love the rose that I've chosen to be my picture. Hey, you can have it! Just right-click on my name and select "Set as my picture."
More than one million users have already set their pictures, and we think it's great. Don't like pictures? Just change that setting in the "View" menu at the bottom of your list. But, please, oh please, change your picture to anything but the dog. Is that so much to ask?
Sincerely,
Gayle Laakmann
Software Engineer
