With the introduction of google’s new jabber service, I’m trying out Adium, a jabber compatible OSS (Open Source Software) chat client for Mac OS X. Google has instructions on setting up Adium for talk.google.com, which makes it easy to get going.
I like that Adium, unlike iChat AV 3, puts my AIM and Jabber contacts in the same window pane. iChat AV 3 requires them to be in separate windows!
Also, after installing Adium, I became aware of OTR, or Off-the-Record, messaging. OTR provides encryption to instant messaging chat text. From their website:
Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging allows you to have private conversations over instant messaging by providing:
Encryption
No one else can read your instant messages.
Authentication
You are assured the correspondent is who you think it is.
Deniability
The messages you send do not have digital signatures that are checkable by a third party. Anyone can forge messages after a conversation to make them look like they came from you. However, during a conversation, your correspondent is assured the messages he sees are authentic and unmodified.
Perfect forward secrecy
If you lose control of your private keys, no previous conversation is compromised.
It doesn’t seem that Google Talk has this functionality….yet. I’ll keep everyone posted as I learn more about this stuff!