I think it is great.
It has only what is NEEDED. Thats the ability to chat.
MSN7 was bloated, and MSN is wanting me to update to 7.5, which is even more bloated. The only reason I stuck with MSN so long, was MsgPlus - Patchou carefully thought about the features he was going to add, and has added useful features (I reckon Patchou should make his own Messenger system
). MSN have just bunged in a load of "fun" stuff that just adds loads of bugs at the same time (ie: those annoying winks, the ability to replace your text with emoticons, flashing/moving/animated bits all over the show).
In my view, Google have put only what is needed in Google Talk. Although one feature I think they defintely need is emoticons.