Selfish Crab

I was trying to get iChat hooked up to Google’s new Talk IM service by following these directions. I go through all the steps until I reach the very last step:

Check the boxes next to ‘Connect using SSL’ and ‘Allow self-signed certificates.’ You don’t need to check the box next to ‘Warn before password is sent insecurely’ — your password is always secure with Google Talk.

Well, since I am security-aware aka paranoid, I decide to leave the “warn if insecure” checkbox on. I try to connect to Google Talk, and I get this:

Uh, sure. I don’t mind sending my Gmail password in the clear. So then I’m thinking to myself: okay, a million nerds on the web hounding Google’s new offering. Someone must have a fix. Here is what one blog had to say:

Note for iChat users – you will get a message warning that your login and password are being sent in an way that isn’t secure. Click Continue at that window and iChat will log you in to Google Talk.

Sigh. You can lead a man to security awareness, but ….

Also, everyone is using the words “Google” and “OS” in the same sentence these days. Instead of “OS”, I think they really mean “platform”, but if you say “OS” then you get to talk about Microsoft. Google and Microsoft. Oh the drama. Yawn.

This would be a real face-off if only Google was able to release an application without the “Beta” security blanket (as others with more inbound links than I have noticed.) 4 out of the 6 search tabs listed on Google home page are beta. Google News, Google Groups, Google Froogle, and Google Local are still beta (Web and Image search are not.)

Removing “Beta” means more than you got a pair. It means that you are treating the product seriously, that you understand you are obligated to provide support for it, that it will not just disappear. (In case you were wondering, apparently Yahoo has got a pair. None of the search tabs on their home page has the Beta sticker.)