Google's been troublesome all the way around lately.  First there's the GMail outages and continued technical difficulties, and now there's a phishing scam circulating around Google Talk.  Here's what to watch out for and what to avoid.

Basically, like I tell my parents all the time, most of the stuff people link you or send you in emails isn't worth downloading.  If someone sends you a TinyURL link to some site called ViddyHo, then it's probably not the smartest idea to give that site your Google login information.  If you have, change your username and password immediately!  (You should actually change your username and password on a regular basis anyway, but I don't need to tell you that.)

I have friends who, wisely, ask me "What is that?" any time I send them a link to anything.  Generally, I'll tell them either what it is or to shut up and click it.  Either way, they always know it's me on the other end and not some phishing scheme that's taken over my computer.  Most phishing schemes aren't rude enough to tell you to shut up.