Have there been any updates to Hello recently. When exactly was the last update again ?

It's a shame Hello isn't being developed further (or it appears so)

http://www.hello.com/

That's a good question. Based on the posts on the Google Groups Hello and Picasa forums, there are service reliability issues. Of course only the people with problems complain. There could be thousands of happy users for every unhappy one.

With the advent of IM clients that can share files and photos, such as MS Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and now Google Talk, perhaps there is not much need to support a stand alone client like Hello.

If that is the case, perhaps Google Talk integration can be made with Picasa. In order for that to happen, though Google will have to lift the restriction on Google Talk accounts only being given to Gmail accounts. I have family that would refuse to sign up for a new email to just share pictures. Frankly, I would like to see Picasa integrate sharing through Messenger and Yahoo as that is what so many people use, but I don't see it happening.

With Web hosting of pictures through services like Picasa Web Albums, perhaps there's not even a need for IM integration. Though I am not one of them, I guess there are people that would still like to chat in live time or even by voice as they share pics.

TonyB

Here's more info on Google Talk's sharing. Up to 10 photos will show a preview and you can chat about them even before you transfer.

I have never used Hello, though I have it installed. Isn't this pretty much what Hello does?

http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/08/its-finally-here.html

Tony

Or atleast I'd like to see Hello integration into Google Talk.

I'm using Hello for overa year and never had any glitches (and my friends as well).

I think that web hosting (picasaweb) can't replace some of the benefits of Hello, such as sharing comments in real-time about some particular photos. For example, I send 50 pics to my friend and seeing at which picture he is looking right now, I give some extra info about them.

Also I wish Google could integrate into Hello the Geo-targeting feature (like in Picasa), so that you could see in Google Earth where that picture was taken. Currently you have to send not only the photos, but the Google Earth's kmz file to let people see where exactly those photos were taken. Integration with Hello would make the process way faster and easier (next step is to make Google analyze the photo and geo-target it automatically without user input ;)).