Google’s Gmail Chat (aka Google Talk) feature is now available within your custom iGoogle homepage.
Google added the chat functionality into iGoogle this week, noting that with the recent redesign , Gmail access was available — but instant messaging was not.
“Having the ability to work on email right on my iGoogle page has been awesome, but I simply couldn’t get the same Gmail experience without the chat feature,” writes Google Talk engineer Rhett Robinson .
The new function pulls your chat settings from Gmail and gives you a similar setup. It also adds an option for non-Gmail users to sign up for iGoogle-based chat with any working e-mail address.
Google has been testing the feature on a small-scale for some time, Robinson says. It will be rolled out to all U.S.-based iGoogle users over the coming days. You can manually add it onto your account immediately, however, by clicking here.
