On: Google Takeout: Download your data from Picasa, Contacts, Buzz and Profiles

[afhof]

Unfortunately it is still pretty hard to get any of your Google Talk chat logs out. Most of the solutions are from years ago and no longer work. I ended up being able to download an sqlite database of my chat logs using Google Gears.

[dmd → afhof]

You can retrieve Google Talk chat logs with this API call: http://code.google.com/googleapps/appsscript/class_gmailapp....

[beck5 → afhof]

Do you find them useful for reference or just feel safe having them?

[ori_b → beck5]

I log everything because quite often it is useful to refer back to them.

[AlecSchueler → ori_b]

It might defeat the benefits of using the web interface for you, but you could connect to Talk using Pidgin, or something similar.

[ori_b → AlecSchueler]

I already do. I prefer Pidgin's UI anyways. (Also, the chats are logged by gmail anyways, so if I want to use Google's search for the logs over grep, I still have that option)