It appears that Google Talk is about to roll out offline messages... good news! :)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=374

awesome! I've been waiting for this- along with video conferencing and talking to a group of people together

Actually it already works for me already. I noticed it allowing me to send messages to people who were offline and I was wondering why. Now there is a note that says "[Name] is offline. You can still send this person messages and they will receive them the next time they are online." But this message doesn't show up for everyone on my list, it might just say "[Name]is offline" but it still doesn't stop me from sending messages (which is what I was experiencing earlier). On other people it will not work at all and it still says "[Name] is offline and can't receive messages right now." – but I think this only applies to people who haven't accepted your friend request.

cool!!!
<< "Name" is offline. You can still send this person messages and they will receive them the next time they are online. >>

thanks Garett!
though it doesnt work on Gmail Talk :/

they should update this page though:
https://services.google.com/inquiry/talk_suggest

it still says – << Offline message delivery >>

It works for me on google talk :
"[###] is offline. You can still send this person messages and they will receive them the next time they are online. "

I got the same message as you with Gmail Chat, but nothing says me that my mate will not receive the messages :(

I just wanted to post the same. I got the folowing in my chats (gmail):

"These messages were sent while you were offline."

strange, because the message wasn't marked as unread.

They are probably rolling this one out as we speak.

I'm not gettin it. I don't get any message at all, but I can still post offline messages. And I'm sure it's been like that for ages...

WOW, that's a really great news. That was the only thing that was missing (for me) in Gmail Chat.

It works for me.

The offline message apears as a new email. And it starts with the text:

These messages were sent while you were offline.

Pretty neat.

Not interesting enough to take a screenshot i guess.

Speaking of Google talk.. i saw Gmail talk can Call to contacts (if Google talk is on, only!)

see here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DavidHetfield/GoogleMore/photo#4992373362256576530

and here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/DavidHetfield/GoogleMore/photo#4992373363225526290

is this new?

nope, not new. Exists for some time already

Yahoo Messenger has been doing this for almost a decade. Why are we getting so excited?

dont forget Google Talk is in Beta phase.. which means that every little feature comes out we're "thrilled" and inform everyone about it :)
plus, Google Talk is out for only a year or so.. (correct me if im wrong) so it doesnt have so many feature so far.. :/

dont forget MSN (or Live) Messenger didnt have this feature till the latest version of it!

Your 100% right David, but you forgot to mention we're "thrilled" by every little thing Google does. :)

lol..
yeah.. sorry :)

Hopefully, Google knows when to stop adding features.

http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2006/11/offline-messages.html

I think Google's approach is pretty good – i.e. release a product with the bare minimum of features and then see which people want most. What's the point in adding features nobody wants anyway? But, just like Ionut says, I hope they know when to stop!