The much anticipated Google Talk BETA was released by Google today, as speculated over the last few days by many news sources. This comes amid a rushed effort by Microsoft, which released MSN Messenger 7.5 to the public earlier today as well.

The Google Talk software features Instant Messaging, and VoIP. Google themselves sum up the core ideas behind Google Talk ver well:

'They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free–anytime, anywhere in the world.'

Some of the requirements of Google Talk are:

• Google Talk requires a Gmail username and password
• Google Talk currently only supports Windows 2000 and XP
• To use the audio chat features of Google Talk you must have a computer microphone and speakers.

To find out more information or download Google Talk, visit the official Google page here.