Filed under: Utilities, Google, Social Software, Beta

Google Speak Labs edition is a new desktop version of Google Talk that borrows some features from the on the web Google Talk Gadget, including the addition of Group Chat, emoticons and more.

Google Talk Labs edition also adds new desktop notifications from Google Calendar, Orkut, and Gmail.

Unfortunately, it skimps on a few of the desktop features, and seems more like an intermediate step toward a full-featured desktop Chat application rather than its fulfillment. The most notable missing features are voice calling and file transfers. If you need those, you’re better off with the original Google Talk client.

We hope that, in the near future, Google can round up all of its Chat features into one application. Until then, you’ll have to pick and choose which features are important to you, and download or use the appropriate Google Speak service.

[via Daily Apps]

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Filed under: Utilities, Blogging, Mozilla, Social Software

If you post regularly on Twitter, and have constantly felt constrained by the 140 character post limit, then Twitzer might be the Firefox extension for you.

Twitzer is a Firefox extension designed by the developers of the shortText website, which lets you post entries longer than 140 characters on Twitter. It’s pretty simple to use: once installed, navigate to Twitter and type a post as you normally would (ignoring those massive red warning numbers on the right hand side of the text box as you go over 140 characters).

When you’re completed, right-click on the box, and choose “Twitzer text”. That’s it! Your entry is shortened to less than 140 characters.

Magic? No, simple web sleight-of-hand. When you “Twitzer” your text, the extension automatically shortens your entry to 140 characters, uploads the rest to the shortText website, and posts a link to that text at the end of your entry.

Also available from the right-click menu is the option to “De-Twitzer” your entry or someone else’s, meaning the full entry is shown on the Twitter website as it is saved on shortText.

While this is a good execution of a nice idea, we’re a bit confused; we thought Twitter was in the category of micro-blogging…this kind of defeats the purpose, nay, the definition of, a micro-blog.

What say you? Will this extension, and other items enjoy it, cause Twitter to bloat into extinction? Or, if used with caution and prejudice, can this be a helpful way to post your rants that exceed 140 characters?

[via Softpedia]

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