You can do lot of interesting stuff with Google Talk like get alert notifications, save bookmarks to delicious, manage web calendars, set reminders, write blogs, and so much more.
Such features can be easily integrated into Google Talk through ‘bots’ which, in simple English, are like virtual friends who are online 24×7 and will always respond with a smile to your questions or requests.
Here are the eleven most useful ‘bots’ that transform Google Talk into a more useful program:
1. imfeeds@gmail.com – Add this IM Feeds bot as your Google Talk buddy and you’ll be able to read any blog or website that syndicates content via RSS feeds.
To subscribe to a website in GTalk, simply send a new IM message that says "sub labnol.org" where labnol.org is the site address that you want to read inside Google Talk.
2. friendfeed@bot.im – This secret bot lets you post to FriendFeed from Google Talk. You may submit either hyperlinks or text messages.
3. imified@imified.com – This imified bot turns Google Talk into a real powerhouse.
You can post bookmarks to delicious, send messages to Twitter, submit blog entries to WordPress, Tumblr or Blogger, manage events in Google Calendar, shorten long URLs, run whois and so on.
4. inezhabot@gmail.com – Like IM Feeds, iNezha bot helps you read feeds inside Google Talk but this is slightly more versatile. For instance, you can simply say "digg" and it will show a list of all feeds that match that search term so you don’t have to type (or copy-paste) feed addresses.
5. Translation – This is a free service from Google that helps you translate words from a foreign language into your native language. Just add the relevant bot (e.g. hi2en@bot.talk.google.com for Hindi to English or en2hi@bot.talk.google.com for English to Hindi) as your buddy, send him a message and it will get translated instantly.
6. Use Google Talk with Twitter – Invite twitter@twitter.com to become your friend in Google Talk and verify your account. Now whenever you IM this new friend, the message will automatically publish on your twitter account.
7. Set Task Reminders – If you need to remember something important, Google Talk can send you reminders for that event.
Just add timer to your Twitter friend’s list and then add twitter@twitter.com to your buddy list in Gtalk. Now if you want to get a reminder after 50 minutes, send a direct message to twitter like "d timer 50 pick kids from school" and a reminder will automatically pop up in your Google Talk after 50 minutes.
8. Transliteration – If you want to chat in your mother tongue (like Hindi or Tamil) but feel more comfortable using the English keyboard, Google Transliteration bot will come in handy.
For instance, add en2hi.translit@bot.talk.google.com to you friend’s list in GTalk and all messages you type in English will get transliterated in the language of your choice. Available only for a few Indian languages.
9. Xpenser – With xpenser, you can record travel expenses via email, SMS or even Google talk. Add xpenserbot@gmail.com as your buddy and send a message like "lunch 33.2 with Bill Gates" and that will be added as an expense to your online spreadsheet that can be accessed from anywhere.
10. Ping.fm – Like Imified, ping.fm is one of the most useful Google bots out there especially if you are a social networking or micro-blogging addict.
Add pingdotfm@gmail.com to Gtalk and you can communicate with twitter, jaiku, wordpress, identi.ca, facebook, myspace, bebo, friendfeed, linkedin, tumblr, plaxo, friendster, delicious and more.
11. Meshly – Add meshly@gmail.com as your friend and you’ll be able to post web link to your Meshly account via Google Talk. You can also add tags, categories and description to your hyperlink via Gtalk itself.
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