I live and die by Google Talk. That’s just the way things are. Constantly in chat with friends, family, co-workers, and watching for new emails to come in (Gmail is my productivity hub).

A new version of Google Talk, called Labs Edition, has been released. While it adds a couple new, much needed features, it’s left out a couple key components that are already present in the normal Google Talk client.

Google Talk Labs Edition (which I’ll shorten to GTLE) finally incorporates group chat within the client itself and notifications beyond just Gmail. GTLE includes Google Calendar and Orkut notifications (I don’t use Orkut but can vouch for how much I like the Gcal notifications) so you don’t miss those all important scheduled events or scraps from friends.

Chats now occur in tabs within the main Google Talk client window (see below), which is all well and good for some people. It’s not for me, as I’m constantly up and down from my desk, so I need a chat window to pop up and flash at me to get my attention. So, I head into the GTLE settings to change that.

But I can’t. In fact, I can’t really change any settings. Here’s the GTLE client’s settings window in all its spartan glory (This… Is… Google Talk!)*.

No settings for launching a new window when a new chat arrives. Also, no real notifications settings changes (like how long to display the notification; the current amount of time notifications display seems short to me).

We’re also missing the ability to make voice calls and send files in the GTLE client.

Is GTLE a step in the right direction? I think so. Let’s combine the features of the original Google Talk client and these nice new GTLE features and I think we’ll be closer to a chat client that can start to compete with AIM or MSN.

*Sorry for the lame 300 joke.