Statistics indicate that Gtalk has become the third fastest growing instant messaging service.

Nielsen/NetRatings has recently released statistics on the instant messaging services with the fastest-growing number of visitors in the U.S., and the results show that from August 2006 to June 2007, Gtalk was the third-fastest growing instant messaging service, as indicated by the data in the chart above. During this period, the number of unique visitors to Gtalk increased from 900,000 in August 2006 to 2.25 million last month, a growth rate of 149%. Although Nielsen/NetRatings did not specify whether this figure represents the combined total of web-based and desktop visitors for Gtalk, it is believed that the strong promotion of the web-based version contributed positively to its growth. The results published by Nielsen/NetRatings in August 2006 largely align with those released by comScore last year, indicating that Gtalk had approximately 900,000 users in the U.S., so it is estimated that Gtalk now has around 2-3 million users in the U.S., still far behind the major players like Live Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger.

Despite this, Meebo remains the fastest-growing service, with an astonishing growth rate of 354% during the same period. Meebo is a web-based IM service that allows users to log into multiple IM accounts, including ICQ, Gtalk, Live Messenger, AIM, etc. However, as of June this year, Meebo's user base still lags behind that of Gtalk.