Google has released a new feature in GMail: reply by chat.
I have wanted to do this numerous times. On the surface it looks cool, to be able to see someone who has sent you email is online. There’s more however; it also groups the resulting chat log in with the email conversation.
Very cool.
Recently, I was in “virtual” conversation with a new friend who had an Apache/PHP problem and, since both of us have Gmail accounts, I suggested we move the discussion to Google Talk. After a few minutes of upgrading GMail notifier and enabling Google Talk, we then moved our discussion to Google Talk. I do have experience with MSN Messenger so it wasn’t too unfamiliar but the fact that our conversation was recorded is pretty cool.
Unfortunately, my suggestions didn’t solve his problems but it turned out that he had to uninstall and reinstall an earlier version of Apache and PHP: apparently, the more recent versions are broken on BSD.
So Kim, if you need to chat, invite me to your contact list (julian.rickards at gmail dot com).