They say talk is cheap. With Google Talk, it’s free--and fast:

• Flexibility: Get in touch with an IM, email, or a call

• Quality: Enjoy fast file transfer and high quality voice calls

• Convenience: Convenience: Reach all your Gmail contacts, with just a click

• Pictures and themes: See pictures in your Friends list and chat sessions.

• File Transfer: With this top requested new feature, you can send unlimited files and folders to your friends through Google Talk. There is no restriction on the file type or size and the peer-to-peer transfer is fast and reliable.

• Voicemail: If your friends aren't around to answer your call, you can leave them a voicemail message instead. Just record your voice after the "Meep" and your friends will get an email to their Talk contact address with the voicemail attached as an audio file. They can play your message when they check their email and save it for as long as they want.

• Music Status and Music Trends: Listening to music while chatting on Google Talk? Now you can let your friends see what you're listening to by selecting "Show current music track" in your status menu. Your status message will change when your song does!

• Chat with your orkut friends using Google Talk

• You can now use Google Talk with Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system.

Google Talk is in beta and requires a Gmail username and password, and Windows 200/XP/Vista.

Mac and Linux users can connect to Google Talk using other other IM clients.

Download: Google Talk 1.0.0.104 Beta | Google Talk for BlackBerry devices (most commonly accessed via your BlackBerry)