Google is now integrating its Talk features into GMail, to create a super web application which should give serious competition to any new features Yahoo! and Microsoft might think of rolling out. It will offer users the ability to talk directly to their contacts if they are online, from their GMail window. All they have to do is log into Google Talk, or keep their GMail windows open! The conversations in turn, will get saved to the Chats section which they recently added, right under the Starred section. This will be very cool when everyone has it by the end of this month, and then we'll see how many people start switching over from their MSN Messengers and Yahoo Messenger, in favour of Google Talk! :) (Courtsey Google) Another mode of communication, which I find very good and helpful (in many ways) is commenting, and conversations through comments on blog posts. Today, there are a few companies which integrate their technology, which tracks comments and keeps them in one place, with existing blogging service giants, resulting in a whole new side to commenting and expressing an opinion on someone elses opinion. Companies like coComment look extremely promising, while making it easy for people to understand what a certain topic is leading to. They give a good twist to the phrase 'makig sense of comments'.

When you comment on a blog, coComment keeps a copy of your message on a special page - called "your conversations" - that allows you to quickly see your comment and where it was posted, with a link to the original site. Display all the comments you make accross the blogosphere on your own blog. In one easy step you can show your readers where you've been commenting recently. Don't lose the value you create on other's blogs, benefit from it! Whether you've commented on a blog or you're just following a blog-based conversation of interest to you, coComment can let you know what's been added to a particular discussion in real time.

This is in accordance with the whole concept of organised and contextual information, which is what Web 2.0 originally stands for. I hope to see more companies move and put efforts into bringing information to a more constructive level, so that we can gain maximum from each other ... and ideas and opinions can be consolidated to give maximum impact and command maximum influence. Filed Under: comments