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Last night I downloaded the new Google Talk service. Sure, I’ve already got Skype where I can talk for free to others online or call at low-cost to landlines and mobiles around the world.

But here is the problem - Skype call quality is dropping. As a paying customer, I’m making calls that are inferior to the quality they were six months ago. Overall the experience of computer to computer and ocmputer to telephone number calls is poor and I’m not happy with that.

So what options are there? Well, I could upgrade my Yahoo IM account and use voice with that, but wasn’t too impressed when I tried it out a few years ago. Of course, Yahoo IM voice may be better, but one bitten, twice shy and all that!

There’s various other options out there, but Google Talk is new and having always downloaded new Google applications when they are launched, I couldn’t resist using the new service.

So, Google Talk is now installed on my computer. It works. I’ve tried it with a cousin in Amsterdam in Holland and a business associate in Bushey in England. And the quality is brilliant - clear.

Yes, that’s clear as in, clear. It works.

I like the simple interface of the chat window. The quality of the call is represented by five bars similar to that of mobile phones with all five highligted being best and dropping is the call drops. Even at three or four it was great.

The IM facility is nothing too fancy, but that has always been the appeal of Google. Simple and effective.

You IM and chat, it works. There’s no auto-save messages, but you can always select all, cut and paste into notepad and save it.

What would have been useful is a search facility within the IM window.

Still, this is early days for Google Talk. Google wants feedback from users and some of the lack of facilities are quite likely to be integrated.

So overall, I’m happy. Google Talk does exactly what is says.

A quick update as I’ve been busy with work and launching some new sites including Daily Jews.

I was in Berlin last week (purely for leisure) and if you are looking for a great place to go online, then the Easy Internet Cafe in Potsdamer Platz is worth checking out.

Downstairs is a Dunkin Doughnuts. If you spend 30 euros on a one month pass for unlimited access you also get 30 doughnuts. That’s got to be the best offer I’ve seen for an internet cafe.

Meanwhile, don’t expect all hotels to offer wireless access. Sure, I got high speed net access at the Marriott, but when it came to being wireless, the hotel wasn’t.

Likewise, if you are flying into our out of Schonfeld airport via a low-cost airline such as Easyjet or Ryamair, be aware there is no wireless access at the airport either, or atleast in the part of the airport where you wait to board.

They say there’s a blogger born every second. At least that’s the news which blog search service and tracker Technorati has issued. But let’s not get too excited about it.

The Guardian has a good piece on this written by Jane Perrone and there’s also a quote from me on the piece.

What Technorati also fails to mention is how many of them are advertising blogs, how many of them just have one entry a week updated with some promotional blurb or affiliate marketing text to try and get the search engines to improve their site listing?

According to Technorati 13% of blogs are updated every week and around half of them are updated every three months.

In the mid 90’s we had a word for sites which didn’t update - cobwebs. If half the blogs around don’t update for three months, it’s not a very active blog.

Most people blog, not because they want to specfically blog, but it’s the interface that connects them to the web as a means of getting out their information. They just want to publish.

A blog is probably the quickest and easiest way to get what you want to say online.

You don’t have to look far to find the tools and services whether it is installing a version of Wordpress on your own server or going to Blogger or Typepad for a hosted solution.

So yes, anyone can blog but not everyone can or wants to continue witn their blog for various reasons.

Some give up after a while if they don’t get comments on their blog, others give up when they realise they can’t manage the process to update their blog.

Blogging for others is vanity publishing. They do it because they want their name out or their viewpoint read. Once they’ve done it and put it up, that is it for them.

They are various reasons why people are blogging, but we need to understand those reasons and not get too overcome with emotion about the number of blogs out there. What’s important is the quality, not the sheer numbers.

Sadly an Air France plane from Paris to Toronto crashed as it landed at Pearson Airport today. (Good news is that everyone on board survived.)

While there was coverage on TV via Sky News, BBC News 24, Fox News et al, first hand information was available through the webcasting of Toronto local radio stations.

I was tuned into 680News and CFRB to get the news and updates.

When I Googled for the results of Toronto News Radio, Google gave them to me.

What would be useful is when Google runs big news stories such as this, to then link its Google News feed to relevant audio or video material at the same time. This could then appear somewhere on the right hand side of its newsfeed.

Google works by making life simple, this is a simple idea. Google Labs are you listening?