Ever wonder what would happen if you installed all the from-service instant messenger client you could get your hands on? Nothing good, that’s what. There are three and only three instant messenger clients that are worth using anymore. Pidgin, Adium (which is Pidgin for Mac) and Miranda. None of these store your account credentials in the cloud (everything...

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...

The instant messaging I’m referring to is the traditional old-school way, that being you download a proprietary client, sign up for a free account and then run the client, add buddies/contacts as need be, etc. Such examples are AIM, Yahoo! IM and Windows Live Messenger. The main reason why people aren’t too fond of IM’ing anymore is mainly...

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...

There have been more than a few that have likened Twitter as to being a "slow instant messenger." Yes, the term is an oxymoron, but it fits in this context. Some liken it as turn based messaging of sorts. See, the deal is that Twitter doesn’t act like IM, nor does it act like email. It’s somewhere in between. The best way to use Twitter as...

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...

I’m an AIM guy. In fact I use the very-very current AIM 7 Beta 3, which I’ve found works great so far. The service does what I want it to do and it’s a reliable network. But I have read on more than one occasion that Windows Live (formerly MSN) is the most-used IM on the planet – maybe. The Big Question to you, the reader: What IM do you...

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...

Web-based instant messaging is something some people swear by while others (like me) still prefer the client. Meebo, one of the better multi-service web-based IMs, now has a Windows app called Meebo Notifier that can run the service without having the browser running, sort of. I say "sort of" because while it is a legitimate app that takes care of...

The long (and I mean long) awaited Trillian Astra from Cerulean Studios was made available to those who were willing to sign up for testing purposes. I downloaded it today and installed it. Currently it’s just Windows-only for testing purposes. Trillian was the first multi-protocol instant messenger I ever used years ago when they were at version 0.74,...

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...

AOL Instant Messenger, better known as simply AIM, is my preferred way of instant messaging simply due to the fact it’s the most reliable chat network. Out of all the things AOL does wrong, AIM is the only thing they do right. Windows Live (formerly MSN) and Yahoo both have routine small outages on their networks that can get really irritating really...

I was a hardcore Pidgin user for all my instant messaging stuff but I recently discovered Digsby. I liked it so much that I switched! See video below on why I like it so...