Taking the suspense out of g-chatting

Image by Mr Ush via Flickr

Google Talk (which I prefer to call g-chat) is the instant messaging service that accompanies Gmail and is singlehandedly responsible for decreasing workplace productivity by 5 to 50 percent. Hmmmm…. I wonder if there’s any correlation to be found between the rise of g-chat and the general decline of the American economy…

But that’s besides the point. G-chat lets you see who else is chained to their computer (or Blackberry or iPhone) at any given moment. Unless you choose the “invisible” option, which I sometimes do in order to increase said productivity.

When chatting with someone, the program tells you when your g-chat comrade is typing, or has typed something. Which is nice in that — like face-to-face communication — you can pause until your comrade has fully replied. When having an anxiety-ridden chat with a love interest though, this can prove to be a bit annoying:

He is typing. What is he going to say? Now, g-chat is telling me he typed something. Why is he not sending it? Oh, gosh, now it’s gone. Now he’s not typing anything. What was he going to say? What just went unsaid?

Google has a plan to rid of us of that anxiety… or at least the anxiety that stems from g-chatting. Google can’t likely do much about the relationship anxiety. Check out their plans for instantaneous instant messaging, after the jump.

Google is planning on taking g-chat further toward to goal of simulating face-face communication:

Wave is designed to make it easier to converse over e-mail by providing tools to highlight particular parts of the written conversation. In instant messages, participants can see what everyone else is writing as they type, unless they choose a privacy control. Photos and other online applications known as “widgets” also can be transplanted into the service.

via The Associated Press: Google hoping Web surfers will ride its `Wave’.

No more revision of thought via revision of chats. Maybe this will force more of those anxiety-ridden conversations to be had face to face. Or just provide more fodder for anxious wondering:

Does he use the privacy control with everyone or just with me?