Lab #15

Google Talk, I found, was a more difficult than all the other video chat platforms to register and set up. This was due to the fact that I didn’t have an IGoogle account, had I owned one I may have found it fairly easy to register. One the things that I noticed right away with Google talk was that the size of the screen was fairly small. It was difficult for me to figure out how to adjust it to make it a larger screen to view or how to make my own video feed larger. It was far easier on the other platforms to adjust the screen size. Another disadvantage of Google Talk was that user is not available to make phone calls only video chat calls to other people. Therefore Google Talk users could only chat with other Good Talk users that happen to be online at the same moment. Also I learned that Google Talk does not offer any gaming services that the other two platforms provide. Unlike Skype or Yahoo! video chat users can interact with one another by playing games together which I found to be really fun and exciting.
Yahoo! Video chat, to me, was by far the most users friendly. Although I am more accustomed to Skype I found myself being able to change preferences and settings fairly quickly than I could on Skype. When chatting on Yahoo!, the service provides a large screen to view the other person and if for any reason you want to make the window that contains your video feed larger, you can easily do so. Yahoo!, like Skype offers a chat service so two video chat users can “chat” via text if one of the persons doesn’t have a microphone or is having problems with their computer.
Skype offers a large screen to view the other when video chatting. Although I prefer to use Skype as opposed to the other formats I acknowledge it does have flaws with the layout. It can be a little confusing and troublesome to find and change certain settings because they open up many different windows. I do enjoy the gaming feature on Skype though that allowed me to play checkers with another student in class. Also I like Skype’s screen share capability. With just a push of a button I can allow the other user to view what I am viewing on my screen which could come in handy if I were to have computer difficulties and the other person was trying to tell me how to fix it.
Although I do enjoy videochatting I do not see this becoming something that will replace the cell phone. I feel the cell phone has too many advantages that allow it to be more superior to video chat. First cell phones are very portable and can fit in your pocket. Also now days people have their emails set up to their cell phones so you can receive not only text and phone calls but also you’re personal email as well.