Google now has chat. One can use their chat client, or use one's own Jabber-compliant client.

I love technology. I just installed GAIM, and I'm having so much fun. It's being much nicer than the current Y! piece of shit.



(I'm lucky in that my inner teenager is computer-savvy, and in fact more computer-savvy than I am. When she gets out, I go and hide from all the geekage. But she's competent, so we can work with that. And she talks now. And she has social skills. She's employable. I got really lucky. I'm going to haul her off the computer and us to bed, under all kinds of protest I'm sure.)