In the midst of AIM, Skype, Gmail Chat and heaven knows how many more competing instant messaging tools there are, Google’s making moves to create one less program to keep track of. The company just released a feature that lets you chat with people using AIM from within Gmail. It’s fully integrated with the Gmail Chat feature, so there’s nothing to install. Click the triangle next to Set Status Here link, and choose Sign into AIM. You’ll see your AIM contacts listed along with all your other Gmail contacts.
The problem, of course, is that you don’t want to stay logged in to your Google account. If you do, the company can keep a pretty detailed log of every site you look at and attach it with your account profile. Best to relegate the feature to quick chats while you’re checking your Gmail account.