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How To Add Google Talk to Your Webpages

via MakeUseOf.com by Jorge Sierra on 12/4/08

With Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms taking the world by storm, it is easy to forget how great instant messaging can be for communicating. Many individuals still prefer to use Google Talk rather than Twitter, FriendFeed, and the like. If you still use Google Talk more than anything else, you'll be glad to know that you can add Google Talk chatback badges to your webpages.

The Google Talk chatback badge allows people visiting your webpages to chat with you with what is essentially a specialized version of the Google Talk gadget. The chatback badge will display your Google Talk online status, along with a customizable message, and a link to open a chat window with you. You can opt to use a nickname in the chat, if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous.

You can also create different badges if you wish. This can be useful if you have multiple personalities as many bloggers and webmasters do. When someone clicks the link in the badge, you will receive a message from chatback@talk.google.com with a URL to chat to the guest. When you click the link, the chat begins! The guest doesn't even need a Google Account to chat with you!

Setting up your Google Talk chatback badge is easy:

Go to the Create a Google Talk chatback badge page (log into your Google Account if prompted).
Click the Edit dropdown and change the badge to your liking.
Click the Update badge button.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the badge looks the way you would like it to look.
Copy the code in the text area at the bottom of the screen and paste it into your webpage(s).

If you are putting the badge into a narrow column on your webpage, you may find that 200px is too wide. If this is the case, you'll need to update the code by changing the value 200 to the desired width. There are two places in the code where you'll need to provide the new width. See the highlighted sections in the screenshot below.

Do you primarily still use Google Talk? What do you think of the Google Talk chatback badge?

Jorge Sierra is a geek that enjoys working with Linux and other free software and operating systems. He also enjoys programming as a hobby and has developed several iGoogle Gadgets. By day, he works as a Six Sigma black belt and by night he occasionally blogs as GeekLad.

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