Designers of the world and standards advocates rejoice, for A List Apart is back. I still remember when I first started caring about the web, standards development and new methodologies, and ALA was the first place I went to looking for relevant information. It’s been around since 98 and version 4.0 is up now (and looking damn great).

It had been gone for quite a while, with news of being active and inactive coming one after another. Now, however, it sure as hell looks like it is ready to rumble. And with a mighty fine article by Jim Coudal to boot, about “Becoming your own client”. Now this is what I call web publishing - content for content’s sake.

No need to keep talking about something you’ve probably heard about before. Welcome back, ALA. Congratulations are due to Zeldman and the gang.

Those of you who’ve been following the rumour and been around reading webreakstuff for a while probably have heard me talk about how Google should invest in a Jabber-based instant messaging client because 1) they have nothing to lose with having an IM and 2) Jabber is an open protocol that allows for many other great uses. Yesterday, they’ve confirmed my expectations and the rumours that were around the web by launching Google Talk.

Google talk is (clearly beta and) only a simple IM client with voice ability for windows. Other platforms may use any client that supports Jabber/XMPP - like iChat or Adium on the Mac, Psi or Gaim on Linux - waiving the support for Voice conversations. This is what I mean by picking an open standard - everyone can get on the bandwagon because there’s a way for everybody to.

Predicting the future:

It’s worked once, I’ll give it a second try. I am assuming google is experimenting with launching an IM client to the masses in order to land some testing base for a serious corporate messaging client solution - something I’ve seriously been lurking for for quite a while. Google’s used this method in the past (think google earth) so why not do it again and give everybody something to play with?

Truth is, the public benefits from a IM system that everyone can use because there are clients for nearly all platforms out there. And corporations may benefit in the future from an integrated desktop solution for all their internet endeavours (search, email, im, shopping, geolocation) - you see where I’m going: world domination.

In all seriousness now, these are good news for the public and may in the long run become yet another Google cash cow. They’re playing the cards right. Next step would be the obvious investment in a browser - something I’ve talked about before and that everyone’s expecting anyway.

Updates, updates:

#1: Feel free to add my gmail email account to your Google Talk contact list: fboliv at gmail.com (email link removed for the sake of spam protection). Let’s have a word or two.

#2: Michael at Techcrunch has posted on this too - including a quote by Keith that’s pretty much in line with my own thoughts. Have a look at the post.

#3: I just sent a couple of emails to people with Gmail and it automatically added them to my contact list transparently, without asking. This is okay for me because I was planning on adding Mike and Nivi already anyway, but I imagine some people won’t like this feature much.

#4: The O’Reilly Radar is running a story on Google talk too, and there’s a few interesting bits I thought you should read. Here’s a great quote that rocket propels skype out of the way because of it’s proprietary format (remember there’s an open SIP-based alternative to skype already - gizmoproject).

The docs say: “Google Talk supports a custom XMPP-based signaling protocol and peer-to-peer communication mechanism. We will fully document this protocol. In the near future, we plan to support SIP signaling.” SIP is the key, I think–it’s the protocol underneath a lot of VoIP software and there are many very interoperable internet telephony systems built on SIP. Once they add SIP, Google Talk rather easily turns into a system with all of Skype’s features. (Though, of course, it can’t interop with Skype because Skype is a proprietary closed protocol).

A quick post to all of you who’ve contacted me in the last 3 days worried about the wildfires that surrounded my city. It was hell, but hell’s over now (that or it’s a lot better and I can actually see the sky). This being said, there’s a lot to talk about, so with no further delays (we hope), let me get back to the regular program.

I know I promised a revamped webreakstuff, and it’s still coming but I was about to change to textpattern until I noticed that the new version 4.0 doesn’t really have trackbacks yet, which are really important to keep something I’ve always preached about - a conversation. Without this and a few other (extremely) important features, I’ve decided to redo the whole site in rails when I have the time (which should be pretty soon anyway). I’ll keep you all updated.

The real posts are following.

I know some of you may be wondering where the hell i’ve been these last 2 days because I haven’t been able to answer my email, post to the blog, or do pretty much anything productive. The reason is, everything around my house was on fire yesterday.

There’s not really much I can say on top of that other than everything seems to be more quiet now (the whole city was surrounded by flames last night), and nothing seems to have been lost by my closest friends and family. There are chances that it may get worse again by nightfall today, so I’m still trying to keep it together around here.

I’m sorry to those of you who’ve been trying to get in contact and haven’t been able to. I’ll reply to everybody as soon as things calm down and this whole hell passes.