I never really liked google chat all that much, mostly because most of my friends were on AIM and I had to specifically tell a friend of mine to go on google chat, if I wanted to talk to them there.  I think it makes a lot of sense and it's really cool that two of the biggest and most successful companies are working together, as opposed to competing against each other.  Gmail will be a lot cooler with AIM as a part of it... I hope to see it soon, and use it myself.