Google's Talk, the IM that's conveniently built into Gmail, is now open to anyone. Where it has previously only been open for Gmail customers, everyone can connect.

New features are filetransfer (recently added) and the option of using it from your blackberry.

Just sign up, invite some friends, and you can be chatting with them in minutes. There are millions of people around the world to chat with! There are, however, still some features including chat histories and mail notifications that will only work if you sign into Google Talk with a gmail account. Either way, we encourage you to give it a try. (GoogleBlog)

I guess this means you would be able to use Google Talk from other IM software such as Trillian ? Anyway, not for me. I am quite happy with the builtin version in Gmail. But I think more people should look into integration of IM accounts, as you can do in Koolim or Meebo, as those differences seperate us.....