Unlike Yahoo Messenger, Gtalk has no option for a user to get into invisible mode. A Gtalk user can block someone to stop him/her from seeing that user on Gtalk. But this also stops  the user from seeing the status of the blocked user. Here comes some people who think this is ridiculous. They say why cannot Google simply has a simple time-tested mechanism of allowing invisible mode.  The answer is, Google is made of really smart people who believe in equality in information exchange in this Information era where information is the most important thing. They think that www is like a mirror, you can only see someone if that someone can see you.  Isn’t this the simplest approach and also a fair one. If you do not like someone to see you online on Gtalk, then you better not  add them.  Unless you think you are a CEO of some company and most of your friends are jobless people because in that case you do not want them to see you online and start messaging you disturbing you from your important business matters.  You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose to hide from them unless circumstances are extraordinary and if you do then what I can I say, your wish, it s  a free country. It is surely negligible thing yet worth a comment.