Google Talk is predominantly used for its simple and fast interface as well as its unobtrusive notifications. Moreover, it now supports voice chat and video calling as well making it one of the best featured chat clients on the internet.

However, there is a side to it that most people do not know much about – it is actually a Jabber/XMPP protocol using chat client – and there are a variety of chat bots for this platform. Listed are five very useful bots that transform Google Talk into a powerhouse.

1. Translation Bot: This offering from Google Translate turns your IM client into a ready-to-go translation service. All you need to add is the correct bot such as en2hi@bot.talk.google.com (for English to Hindi), or perhaps an English to German bot de2en@bot.talk.google.com and start sending it the translation requests. Although this feature is not one hundred percent accurate, it is still a highly useful feature for all those users who need to translate small pieces of text on a daily basis. The full list of translation bots contains a lot more bots in other languages as well.
2. Ping.fm: This all-in-one bot sends messages to 40 social networking websites supported by it including status updates on Facebook, tweets to Twitter (obviously!), microblog posts to Tumblr and other fun features. Best of all, this messaging system works right from your IM client and is completely free. Head over to Ping.fm’s site and sign up for all of its features and the IM chat bot!
3. Meshly: This link site has an IM client! All you need to do is add their chat bot meshly@gmail.com to your friend-list and you are good to go. It works completely off IM clients and you can also add categories, tags and even a short description with the IM message you send.
4. Aardvark: This startup is something of a mashup of Yahoo! Answers and Instant Messaging. Ask a question to the bot, and based on its algorithms it will compute its own tag (or you could give it a few) and it will ask the right people your question – and you will get an answer shortly – you may also receive questions based on the topics you like. This brilliant idea works very well and you almost always get a useful answer. Sign up for its bot!
5. Askme.IM: This site is dedicated to developer chat bots from India. From live cricket scores (instacricket@askme.im) to movie reviews (movies@askme.im) to even pending criminal cases against sitting Indian parliamentarians (nc@askme.im) this website has quite a few bots that work very well with Google Talk and are sometimes very useful on the go.

Editor’s Note: If you are looking to find dictionary meaning don’t forget to add our exclusive dictionary bot to your Google Talk friend list you can learn more about our exclusive Dictionary Lookup Bot for IM. If you are on Twitter, don’t forget to add @twitlookup to your friend list, it allows you to find dictionary meanings, get weather updates and more without leaving twitter, learn more about Twit Lookup.