Good news Linux enthusiasts. Google has announced video chat support in Linux for use in its popular gmail service. Official google blog writes" If you’ve been wanting to use voice and video chat on Linux (our top video chat request), then we have good news for you: it’s now available! Visit gmail.com/videochat to download the plugin and get started." As of now only debian packages are available. This means Redhat/Suse users have to wait for some time to get this service working on their browsers.

Instant messaging between the Google Talk servers and its clients uses an open protocol, XMPP(Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), allowing users of other XMPP/Jabber clients to communicate with Google Talk users. VoIP in Google Talk uses an older version of what would later become the Jingle protocol. The technology used within the Google server network however is not publicly known.Google Talk uses extensions to XMPP for voice/video signaling and peer-to-peer communication. Currently, Google Talk’s implementation differs slightly from the draft XMPP Jingle specifications. However, Google Talk is in the process of being updated to be in full compliance with the Jingle specifications.

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is a set of open XML technologies for presence and real-time communication developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999, formalized by the IETF in 2002-2004, continuously extended through the standards process of the XMPP Standards Foundation, and implemented in a wide variety of software, devices, and Internet services.

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