Holy Guacamole Batman! Hot on the heels of introducing colored labels, Gmail is now in the slow process of rolling out AIM chat support in its Google Talk client, according to Google Blogoscoped.

The Google Talk blog is currently silent on the subject but speculation on AIM integration has been rife since the new Gmail was rolled out a couple of months back. The new Gmail contacts manager has fields for contacts instant messaging details and this led to speculation that the Google Talk client was about to integrate other IM networks into its Jabber protocol.

I personally don’t have the AIM integration myself but when I do, I will test-drive it and report back. But as Google Blogoscoped points out, will the AIM integration be solely confined to Gmail’s built-in chat application or will it also be rolled out to Google Talk’s standalone chat program? I personally don’t use the Gmail application - I much prefer the full program for its icons and its new email notification for Gmail.

If any of you have the AIM integration in your Gmail, please let us know your opinions in the comments below.

**UPDATE** I now have AIM in my Gmail and it appears to be only for the integrated Gmail / GTalk.   Which is pretty disappointing as I don’t use the GTalk in Gmail!    Attempts to add my AIM contacts to my standalone Google Talk application failed.   It told me that the other person needed a Google account for me to be able to talk to them on Google Talk!   So AOL chatters are accessible on Gmail’s chat app but not on Google Talk?    I don’t understand the logic of that one.

Oh well, hopefully they will add AIM functionality to the Google Talk application soon.

You can read the official announcement on the Gmail blog.