I’m not particularly a part of the consolidated Google empire. I’ve got a Gmail account, but it’s relegated mainly to collecting spam, or messages from people who can’t remember my actual email address. But I know plenty of people who swear by Google's web-based email and its attendant calendar and chat programs.

And given that Google’s been making a habit of tuning its websites to be more iPhone friendly, it’s little surprise that they’ve created a new version of Google Talk, their instant messaging application, that’s specifically designed for the iPhone.

To access the new version, just surf to http://www.google.com/talk, and you’ll be launched into the stripped down interface. From there, you can view your contacts, send instant messages, and even set your status.

To access the new version, just surf to http://www.google.com/talk, and you’ll be launched into the stripped down interface. From there, you can view your contacts, send instant messages, and even set your status.

I don’t really have a lot of contacts on my Google Talk list, as you can see pretty clearly—most of my friends are AIM aficionados. But it’s good to know that should I ever decide to change allegiances to the Google side of the fence, I’ll be able to do so on my iPhone pretty easily.