When you use the internet long enough you basically sign up for every instant messenger account on the planet. AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN/Live, and so on. You also sign up for a bunch of social networking sites as well, such as MySpace and Facebook. Maybe you even use one of those micro-blogger type sites like Twitter.

The problem at this point is that you’ve got a bunch of different services and no way to combine them into a simple easy-to-manage way.

Enter the realm of the multi-protocol messaging client. These are clients that try their best to be a do-it-all solution. You may have heard of a few of them. Trillian, Miranda, Pidgin, etc. On the Mac you probably have heard of and/or currently use AdiumX.

As I wrote about recently, I found another that I have now fully switched to, Digsby. Like the other multi-protocol clients, it’s free (save for Trillian which has a “Pro” version for purchase but still offers a free version). Digsby is the only one that really combines everything into a very slick looking interface with no fuss, no muss. The software works and works well. At the present time I have two Yahoo accounts, two ICQ accounts, one AIM account, one MSN account, two MySpace accounts, one Facebook account and one Twitter account all running simultaneously – in one client – Digsby. It works for me because everything is centralized.

Today’s multi-protocol messenger developers have realized that having IM capability simply isn’t enough. It’s more or less required that it must have social networking and micro-blogging capability as well.

There are pros and cons when using a multi-protocol messaging client.

The pros are easy enough to understand:

• Centralized. Everything runs from one program. This saves system resources from getting munched up by other programs and keeps everything neat’n'tidy in a single program.
• No advertising. No multi-protocol messaging client I know of has any advertising banners or text advertising whatsoever.
• Easier logging. All chat/social network/microblogging logs are kept in a single location. This makes it much easier to find stuff later.
• Less susceptible to attack. Most exploits for instant messengers are for the “official” clients. When using a multi-protocol messenger you’re far less prone to annoyances such as text flooding.

The cons (while not readily obvious) are there as well.

• Missing service-specific features. A classic example of this is the ability to share photos via the Yahoo! Messenger client. No multi-protocol client has ever been able to do this right. It’s a Yahoo-specific feature. While it’s true you can send/receive files relatively easily with multi-protocol clients, the ability to “share” is so-so at best (assuming it even works).
• “An island unto itself.” Once you start using a multi-protocol client quite a bit and rack up the chat logs it’s sometimes impossible to transfer those logs to anything else. Yes you can edit “by hand” but there really hasn’t been too much in the way of import/export of logs in an easy-to-use manner. What this means is that once you go with a specific multi-protocol messenger, you’d better like it.
• Service disconnects. Anyone who uses MSN/Live on a different client is most likely familiar that the service drops on a frequent basis. Yes, the client will reconnect without issue, but the fact it occurs is an annoyance. You may also encounter service drops with any other service you have connected because the server is expecting a “native” client and you’re not using one.
• Portability is different per client. It can be argued that the most portable IM client is Miranda (it fits easily on a USB stick and can run in a “mobile” mode of sorts), however each alternative multi-protocol messenger has different ways of doing this. Digsby for example “carries” your information via a central login. Trillian basically doesn’t carry anything. Neither does Pidgin. The most you’ll get is possibly the import of who’s blocked / who isn’t but not much else.

Is there a way to do all this without a client?

Yes.

Your web browser can actually handle everything if you choose to go that route. You could pipe in all your instant messenger accounts via Meebo (which also can operate on a central login) and have Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and whatever else you use in separate tabs regardless of what web browser you use. You can do all this without installing anything.

The only issue at that point is that your browser and its tabs must stay open to stay connected. Some people find this to be an annoyance, but if you don’t want to install anything, that’s the way you should go. Furthermore there will be absolutely no change from computer to computer if you do everything inside the browser solely.

The end result is that there is no perfect solution when connected to all this different stuff. At this stage of the internet’s development, things are better connected but there is still inherent separation between specific services.

My suggestion to anyone who connects to a ton of different stuff is to basically try everything. Try the browser way. Try the client way. Try a combination of both. Use whatever works best for you.

If anyone has any suggestions for do-all (or even some-all) apps or web sites that multitask, feel free to post your suggestions in the comments.

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