More and more people, it seems are using the open source (free) IM client, Pidgin, which supports chatting on multiple networks simultaneously, without the need to run a plethora of bulky, proprietary chat clients (Pidgin currently supports about 16 protocols, including AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and Google Talk).

And simultaneously, as it grows in popularity, more and more people are asking me how to get it to work with Google Chat inside Google Apps. Unfortunately, the instructions posted in the Google Help Center don’t work for a lot of folks, so if you follow those, and still find no joy, give this a try:

(more…)