Google Talk works pretty much like AIM and Windows Live Messenger, although it isn’t quite as feature-rich as those more-established IM clients. (It has no video chat, for example.) It also isn’t nearly as popular; perhaps the biggest drawback of Google Talk is that too few people are using it.

That said, Google has an agreement with AOL to connect Google Talk to the AIM network, but that connection is not yet fully implemented—only through the Gmail Talk component, not through the Google Talk client or iGoogle gadget. So if you want to talk to your AIM buddies, use Google Talk via Gmail. Otherwise, you’re limited to talking to only those (few) users who are currently using the Google Talk IM network.