Google Talk - the Easy Pretty Pictures Reloaded

I remember the first days when I started using Google Talk, how new and strange everything felt to me, a more than experienced Yahoo Instant Messenger User. Not as easy a way to select the avatar, the smilies looked like hell and the lack of color really depressed me. I had to endure through it as some of my friends saw the huge possibilities that Google's IM service had, so that was it.

One by one, the things that I didn't like changed, emoticons were introduced not so long ago and today an easy and, dare I say, more fun way of selecting an avatar, which represents you and that is up to date, has been rolled out by the development team. All you need is a webcam and with that you are crop-free in your attempt to find the best picture for the moment. Oh, and you need the Google Talk gadget, too.

Click on your Google Talk picture and select the "Take Photo" option and the image from your cam will appear. Then be creative, take pictures how you like them to be, no more searching, editing and then uploading involved. When you have the shot just click in the "Save" button and you will have done it through the what you can see was a very difficult process� not!

I mentioned that you have to be using the Google Talk gadget in order to benefit from using this option. As with everything Google sets its eyes on, ever since it rolled out the IMAP function, what you change in the gadget remains the same in your Gmail account and everywhere throughout the entire network. Start using it now and do give up those brand avatars or those with stupid messages, they're funny up to a point. After that they get annoying, really.