In what is arguably the most nerdy way to send and receive instant messaging through popular networks such AIM, Yahoo and MSN, it is possible to do it all using IRC. While it’s true that instant messaging isn’t used as much as it used to be, IRC shows absolutely no signs of slowing down whatsoever and people do use it regularly – so much that...

For a few years now, the way in which Yahoo! and Windows Live does public profiles is nothing short of ridiculous. There are way too many options, way too many things to turn off, and the real sad part is that most of you who read this didn’t know about all the crapola that comes with a profile from Y! or WLive. This is mainly due to the fact that both...

Putting instant messaging on your web site has never been easy. The only way people could get any messaging on their web sites was to use IRC. The popular way to do it was to embed a channel such as with PJIRC. And later on there was the ability to create an IRC chat "widget" with Mibbit. Both methods are so-so at best because they rely on IRC servers...

AIM is the primary instant messenger I use. Out of all the IM services I’ve used over the years, it is the most reliable. In addition, it runs flawlessly on any operating system. Whether you’re on Windows, Mac or Linux, you can run AIM. The latest client offering on the Windows platform is AIM 7 Beta 2. Short review: It’s awesome. If you use...

Lots of us have more than just one computer in the home. And with instant messenger apps, that unfortunately means only one computer can use a single IM account at a time. For example, if you use Yahoo Messenger and login to one PC in the home, then use the same account to login with on another, it will "kick off" the first one. You can have multiple...

More people these days are getting away from instant messenger programs and using the in-browser way, because there really isn’t too much reason to use an IM app these days. Years ago a large chunk of the IM functionality was provided by the application, but that’s not the case anymore. You can do voice, webcam, manage your buddy/contact list and...

Software bloat is unfortunately all too common in many of the apps that we use, with two of the biggest offenders being email clients and instant messaging programs. While it’s true you could use web-enabled versions of these apps, sometimes this is just as bad because it causes the browser (no matter which you use) to use a lot of memory in short...