The rumors have finally come true - Google Talk , Google's IM service is here. Since it's based on Jabber XMPP , a variety of Jabber-capable IM clients can be used to connect to the network. Google has provided instructions on how to connect to their server using some clients . I did manage to connect to their server via Kopete version 0.10.3 which is the IM client that's part of KDE 3.4.2. Here are the step-by-step instructions for configuring Kopete to connect to the Google Talk network: Go to Settings | Configure Kopete . Click New to setup a new account. At Step One,choose the Jabber messaging service. At Step Two, in the Basic Setup tab, enter your GMail address (including the @gmail.com part) for Jabber ID . Optionally, check the Remember password checkbox and enter your password if you want Kopete to remember it via KWallet , the KDE Wallet Manager. In the Connection tab, make sure that the Use protocol encryption (SSL) checkbox is checked. Check t...