A problem with instant messaging is that it can be tough to get the same screen name on all services you use. Most people these days choose to employ the use of a multi-protocol instant messaging program such as Digsby, Trillian, Miranda, Adium or Pidgin, and having all those different names can be aggravating for others to remember. You can, however, use your email address as your screen name for just about every single IM service there is.

Before telling you how this is done per each service, there are a few things to bear in mind.

The email address you choose as your screen name must be one that you own and use regularly. In other words, don’t use your work email address.

Don’t use an email address that is "tied" to your ISP, because at some point in the future you may change ISPs.

Try to use an address that doesn’t have any dots, dashes or underscores in it. If you can’t do that, that’s understandable, but be aware that some IM services won’t permit usernames that contain characters like that.

How to register your email address as your screen name in..

MSN/Windows Live

1. Go to www.live.com.
2. Click the Sign in link at top right.
3. Click the Sign up button on the left.
4. The first field will be Use your e-mail address. Proceed from there.

AIM

1. Go to www.aim.com.
2. Click Get a screen name at top right.
3. Choose Use an existing email address as a Screen Name. Proceed from there.

Google Talk

This one takes a few hoops to jump thru to get this working, but can be done.

1. Go to www.google.com.
2. Click the Sign in link at top right.
3. Click Create an account now at bottom right.
4. Use your current email address as your screen name on the next page and continue sign-up.

The hoops you have to jump thru at this point are that after you’ve created your Google account, you will need to also create a Gmail account in order to use the Google Talk service. Once you’ve finished signing up, go to www.google.com/accounts and add in the Gmail service. Yes, you will have to create an Gmail account "on top of" your Google account, but both will be "tied" together afterward. Then people can start sending you instant messages via your Google Talk account.

Yahoo!

This IM service doesn’t allow the creation of accounts using your email address, however, being that MSN/Live accounts and Yahoo! accounts can interact with each other easily, all anybody has to do is send you messages to your MSN/Live account via the Yahoo! service and you will receive them, so the creation of an additional Yahoo! screen name isn’t necessary.

Advantages of using your email address as your screen name

1. It’s guaranteed to be available.

In order to use an email address as a screen name, it must be validated on sign-up by sending a confirmation email to that address. What this means is that the only person who could use your email address as a screen name is you, so it’s guaranteed to be available.

2. It eliminates a lot of confusion.

One screen name for all your IM services you use is mighty convenient. It’s also easy not only for you but for the people you chat with.

3. It makes it easy for people to know what your email address is.

Your email address is your screen name, so those you chat with don’t even have to remember what your email address is, because it’s already in their contact/buddy list.

Disadvantages of using your email address as your screen name

1. It makes it easy for people to know what your email address is.

Yes, this is listed as an advantage but it can serve to be a disadvantage, because maybe there’s certain folks you don’t want knowing your email address.

2. Slight possibility of confusion.

If your screen name is you@hotmail.com, and a contact wants to communicate with you over AIM, you may have to convince them, "Yes, that is my screen name. Seriously. It does work. It’s not just MSN/Live." People aren’t used to seeing a screen name as an email address.

3. You will have to tell everybody to switch over to your new IM screen name(s).

There’s no way around this unfortunately. However when you do get everybody to know your new screen names, it’s well worth it.

Why bother doing this at all?

Ultimately it’s the most convenient way to handle your email and IM communications. Everything is centralized around one screen name. The best part is that you don’t have to radically shift around anything. You can still use the same email and the same IM clients you’ve always used. The only thing changing here is your screen name and nothing else.

And as stated above, nobody on your buddy/contact list has to hunt for your email address. They know what it is right up front.

In fact, if you used this in concert with your social networking profiles (which all have the ability to find contacts by email address,) this even furthers the convenient use of your email address as your one screen name.

Who would have guessed that the email address was the best screen name all along?

It’s rare these days when I come across any app that makes me say, "Wow, now this is useful!" Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop is one of them.

When it comes to email, there are many who prefer the convenience of web-based mail but wish there was a local application that looked and acted like a mail client. Zimbra Desktop is it. This software absolutely nails it in terms of friendliness, ease-of-use, convenience and everything in between.

First of all, it’s multi-platform. Windows, Mac or Linux. Any truly good application these days supports all three, and this does.

Second, it has support for multiple types of email:

Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL Mail, two types of IMAP and POP.

It always pleases me when I see an offering by a major player like Yahoo! that is willing to support a competitor’s product like Hotmail or Gmail because it shows confidence in their own offering.

It should be noted however that only some Hotmail accounts are supported due to compatibility issues. Most will be, but if yours doesn’t connect, the software will explain why.

Third, look at this interface:

Slim, clean and super-easy. Look at the tabs on top. Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Documents and so on are all just a single click away. Folder support is easy too.

Oh, and speaking of which, did you ever want your Gmail account to have accessible "normal" folders like all other webmail does? It will when you use Zimbra. Simply add a folder via a connected Gmail account, and it will create nested folders that look and act just like normal ones – and yes they’re completely accessible via the regular Gmail interface as well.

Fourth, although this sounds a bit dopey I really dig it – a mail indicator icon in the taskbar in Windows when new mail arrives:

The yellow envelope is the new mail indicator. This seemingly insignificant feature is just so nice to have.

Fifth, yes it has multiple account support. In the screen shot above, look on the left sidebar. Your other accounts are listed at the bottom and can be accessed easily with a single click. If there is any new mail in accounts lists there, there is a small number in parentheses telling you how much new mail there is.

Sixth is the synchronization features. Using Yahoo Calendar and Contacts? It will sync seamlessly. Using Gmail’s version? It’ll sync that too.

It goes without saying that Yahoo! Mail users will appreciate Zimbra the most because it FINALLY brings a true native client to the desktop. This is Yahoo’s equivalent of Windows Live Mail and it does a fine job even though it’s beta software.

And yes, it’s beta. That means some things may go buggy from time to time. But in my use of it I’ve encountered no issues as of yet.

The way Zimbra works in Windows is by installing itself as a service. You will see a small red icon in your taskbar (when no new mail is present) like this:

This is not a bad thing whatsoever, because when the Zimbra client is minimized, it goes completely out of the way and shrinks to this little icon, which can be clicked to bring the client back up. In addition, it can be right-clicked to completely shut down the service.

Zimbra Desktop was definitely done right the first time. It is the only software I’ve seen that offers a true alternative to Windows Live Mail (especially if you don’t use Hotmail) and the feature set is just plain great.

Oh, one last note. This may be a frilly feature but still worth mentioning. It has 12 different themes you can use:

This is available via the Options tab.

Let’s say for example you want Zimbra to look like Gmail. You would choose "Zmail." This is what it looks like:

Looks pretty close to Gmail, doesn’t it?

Zimbra’s dev team really thought this product through.

As said at the top of this article, this is a product that accesses web-based mail but still retains the total look and feel of a local mail client – and has the very-super-awesome-cool sync features like Windows Live Mail does, so it isn’t an island unto itself whatsoever.

Two huge thumbs up for Zimbra Desktop. You’d be very hard pressed not to like this.

Knowing how to check the source, as in the raw "code," of an email is important because there will be times when you need to do it. Why? To check authenticity of an email. Spam and phishing emails are getting more tricky to identify all the time, and your best weapon against this is knowing how to check the source of an email.

Unfortunately it is the case where the process of getting the source of an email is distinctively different per provider or mail client, so here’s a quick cheat sheet on how to do it:

Hotmail

1. Right-click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Left-click View Message Source.

Example:

Important note: This can only be done when your emails are shown as a list. If you double-click to open an email whereas the message list is not seen, there isn’t a way to view the message source from there. You must right-click specifically on the email in list view (regardless of whether the reading pane is on or off.)

Yahoo! Mail

There are two ways in Y! Mail to view the source.

1. While in list view, right click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Left click View full headers. It will be last in the list.

Example:

or..

Whether reading a message or having it highlighted in list view, click the Actions button then Full Header.

Example:

Yahoo! Mail Classic

1. Open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for the tiny text on the extreme right that says Full Headers and click it.

Example:

Gmail

1. Open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Click the small down arrow on the right to drop down a menu.

3. Select Show original.

Example:

Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook Express 6

The super-annoying long way

(This is not the way you want to do it because it takes too many steps. See super-easy way below this.)

1. Right-click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Select Properties, like this:

3. From the window that opens up, select the Details tab, like this:

4. In that same window, click the Message Source button, like this:

The super-easy way

1. Highlight or open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Press CTRL+F3

The F3 method is a completely undocumented feature, both in OE 6 and WL Mail. But trust me, it’s there. Try it for yourself.

Mozilla Thunderbird

1. Highlight any email in the message list or open an email.

2. Click View then Message Source.

Example:

or..

1. Highlight any email in the message list or open an email.

2. Press CTRL+U

Incidentally, this is the exact same keystroke used to view web page HTML source in the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

What headers should you check in the source?

Okay, so you know how to view the source of an email, but what do you look for?

The easiest thing to check is the Received: header. This will tell you up front where the email came from originally. The part that’s most important is the very end of the line where the dot-com/net/org is.

Example:

This email came from google.com (it was a Gmail address,) so I know this email is safe. What’s before the google.com doesn’t matter much as it’s the tail that counts. Spam and phishing attempts will attempt to fool you into thinking the mail was delivered from a trusted domain by inserting said domain in the middle. For example, a spam/phish would show as google.com.some.bad.site.ru or something similar. The google.com is in there, but not at the tail. That’s bad and it’s a spam/phish attempt.

Keep an eye on the tail side of a Received: header and you’ll easily be able to identify true trusted domains from spam and phishing attempts.

Hotmail allows for a full seamless backup by means of the Windows Live Mail client using the DeltaSync protocol. Gmail allows for a full backup by means of freely available IMAP access.

Y! Mail doesn’t have either of those options.

A full backup includes not only your inbox, but also the "Sent" folder and any other folders you have. Even if you have a Yahoo! Mail Plus account, the only thing you can ever download is the inbox and nothing else.

With that said, this is how to perform a full Yahoo! Mail backup. The process of how it’s done is long and tedious, but if you care about your mail at all, this is better than nothing.

To note: These instructions are the same whether you’re using Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 7.

1. Download and install FreePOPs

(Yahoo! Mail Plus users can skip this step because you’ve already most likely set up your POP access and use it regularly.)

Quick question answered: Why not YPOPs? Because it times out too much on attempt to connect. It works, but not nearly as well as FreePOPs does.

FreePOPs is easy enough to set up. Download the program, then install it and run it. You’ll see a small green icon indicating it’s running in the taskbar next to the clock.

After that, run the FreePOPs Updater…

…and let it update whatever it needs to. This will include a small Y! Mail update that’s necessary to have.

Remember that FreePOPs must be running in order for the next steps to work. If you see that little green icon in the taskbar, it’s running.

2. Configure a mail client to download your Y! Mail

For this example I’ll be using the Windows Live Mail client.

Below: Click "Add e-mail account" from the left.

Below: Enter your Yahoo! Mail address, Yahoo! Mail password, and your name. Then check "Manually configure server settings for e-mail account."

Below: Set your incoming mail server as POP3. Set the incoming server as localhost (FreePOPs is acting as the localhost.) Set the incoming server port to 2000 (FreePOPs requires this.) Set the authentication method to be clear text. Set the login ID as your full Yahoo! Mail address.

Where people get most confused is with the outgoing server. This is the mail server used to send mail and not receive. FreePOPs has no ability to send mail; it can only receive. Therefore to send mail, should you wish to do so from the mail client, you need to use your ISP’s outgoing mail server. This information will be listed at your ISP’s web site. As for whether it not it requires authentication in order to use, that’s dependent on how the ISP has it configured for access. Some require it while others do not. If it does require a separate username/password to use the outgoing mail server, you would want to check "My outgoing server requires authentication" seen below.

Below: When finished, Windows Live Mail will immediately start downloading mail.

WL Mail is configured by default for new POP accounts to purposely leave copies of the mail on the server. This is good, because it will not remove mail out of the Yahoo! Mail system.

Once all the mail from the inbox is downloaded, proceed to the next step.

3. Backing up the mail out of the other folders in your Yahoo! Mail account

This is the "fun" (as in annoying and tedious) part.

On the local client side, we first create a folder to temporary hold the contents of the inbox.

Right-click the header text, usually titled "Yahoo (YOUR-YAHOO-ID)" and choose to create a new folder, like this:

Title the folder "inbox backup." After that, click the Inbox and highlight all mail by pressing CTRL+A, then drag to the "inbox backup" folder you just created.

It will look something like this when completed:

Go to Yahoo! Mail and do the exact same thing. Create a folder called "inbox backup," then highlight everything in the inbox and drag it there. It will look something like this when completed:

Now that we’ve backed up the inbox on both local and web, we can backup another Y! Mail folder.

For this example, we’ll backup the "Sent" folder.

In Yahoo! Mail, click the "Sent" folder, highlight all mail in there, then drag it to the Yahoo! Mail inbox, like this:

Perform a Send/Receive locally with your mail client to get this mail. It will go to the local inbox and look like this when completed:

Highlight all these mails and drag them to the "Sent Items" folder locally. At this point, now they’re backed up and in their proper location.

Go to your "inbox backup" folder locally, and drag those mails back to the inbox.

Now is the time when you perform your official backup. Use a utility like KLS Mail Backup to back up all the mail in the client before continuing.

In Yahoo! Mail, drag the "Sent" mail you dragged to the inbox back to the "Sent" folder, then drag the "inbox backup" mail back to the inbox.

Perform these steps for each folder you want to backup in Yahoo! Mail.

Quick questions answered

Why do I have to backup the local mail before I move anything back to the inbox in Yahoo! Mail?

If you don’t you’ll get duplicate emails, and that’s annoying to deal with. This is why you backup your local copy before moving anything back to the inbox on the Yahoo! Mail side.

Will the timestamps be kept on each mail downloaded?

Yes.

Why do I have to keep moving around mail to the Y! inbox just to download it via POP?

Because Yahoo! allows mail to be downloaded via POP from the inbox only.

Can I move mail from local to Yahoo! Mail?

No. You can only get mail from Yahoo! to local and not the other way around. That’s the way POP works. The only way to get mail from local to a Yahoo! Mail account is to forward it. Yes, this sucks, but that’s the only way.

If I send a mail via the client, will this sync to my Yahoo! Mail "Sent" folder?

No. If you want that ability you’ll have to use YPOPs, linked above. It has the ability to copy sent mail to your Y! Mail’s "Sent" folder on each send. However I don’t recommend the use of that due to the fact it times out so much. This can prove to be very frustrating in short order.

If I create folders in the client, will they sync with Yahoo! Mail?

No.

Being that FreePOPs supports a ton of different mail besides Yahoo! Mail, could I use it to back up a different account, such as mail.com mail, aim.com mail and so on?

Absolutely. Using the methods above you could backup mail the exact same way with any one or more of these providers.

VoIP is Voice over Internet Protocol. It’s a general term used to describe voice communications over a packet-switched network (such as the internet). In this article I’m going to touch on the several different ways you can use PC-to-PC VoIP.

Important note: Yes, VoIP obviously includes the ability to communicate via PC-to-phone and vice versa. But that costs money to do that in most instances. PC-to-PC calling is completely free and that’s what I’ll be talking about.

Also note: There are more than 5 ways to VoIP. This is just a quick list.

Skype

Web site: www.skype.com

This is by far the most used PC-to-PC VoIP software that people use. In fact it’s used so much that the name is used as a verb that means "to call" (ex: "We need to talk, I’ll Skype you") much the same way Google means "to search the internet".

Skype also makes for a darn fine text instant messenger as well.

The only bad part about Skype is that it uses a proprietary protocol, meaning you must use Skype software in order to use the service. This is a turn-off for some.

Is there a way to call a Skype user without Skype software on a PC? Yes. There’s Gizmo5’s OpenSky. I haven’t tested this so I don’t even know if it works, so if anybody wants to give that a go, please feel free to do so and comment below if it worked or not (and if it did work, how well did it work?)

Windows Live Messenger

Web site: download.live.com/?sku=messenger

WL Messenger has had the ability to do VoIP for some time now, although most people aren’t aware of it. This is mainly because for whatever weird reason it’s hidden.

I’ve found the easiest way to access the feature is to open the messenger, press ALT on your keyboard to bring up the top menu, then click Actions, Call, Call a contact’s computer, like this:

From there you can place a call to another WL messenger contact on your list.

Yahoo! Messenger

Web site: messenger.yahoo.com

Calling another contact on your list is easy in Y! Messenger. Just right-click an online contact and choose to "call" the user’s computer. No fuss, no muss.

Google Talk

Web site: www.google.com/talk

Out of all the software on this list, Google Talk’s is the easiest concerning PC-to-PC calling. It’s as easy as Yahoo’s way of doing it but has the advantage of being very light on system resources. As a VoIP client, it’s tough to beat how straightforward and simple Google Talk is.

Ekiga

Web site: ekiga.org

Linux users are familiar with this one, but bear in mind there is a Windows version also.

Be sure to read Ekiga Interoperability as it explains what will and won’t work with Ekiga on phones, Mac and Windows.

What’s the best of the lot?

Skype, no question.

Why is it the best?

1. It will work easily on Windows, Mac or Linux.
2. It has the most recognition as a solid PC-to-PC software voice client.
3. It’s the easiest to do small voice conferencing with (meaning 6 participants or lower before the connection chokes).
4. The software runs well even on lower-end PCs and Macs.
5. For what it offers for free, it’s extensive and moreover useful.

Do you use VoIP at all? If so, what’s your favorite VoIP software client?

Write a comment or two and let us know.

No, this does not mean that Yahoo! the site is going away. Far from it. It means that Y! has officially offloaded it to Microsoft.

Yahoo! has made it very clear these days (and their CEO even said so) that they are not a search company, so now Y! is all about content.

This is part of the reason why Y! has been making major changes over the past few years – mostly in the form of cutting the chaff from the wheat, so to speak. Yahoo! 360 is gone, Geocities will be gone in October, Yahoo! Live the short-lived broadcasting service (like Ustream/BlogTV/etc.) closed in ‘08, Jumpcut, another Y! property, is gone, and so on. And there are plenty more.

Y! has been dropping a whole lot of hammers, no question. They want to concentrate on things that will make them grow as a company, and search is definitely not one of them.

At this point I personally do not have faith in the Y! brand due to the fact they can’t seem to find a winner with anything new they produce. And instead of taking their existing services and improving upon them, they get dropped instead. For those of us that actually used those services, we as the users get screwed in the end because any effort we put into using it was for nothing. This is not exactly what we’d call a confidence booster in the Y! brand.

There are seven things from Y! that I know people use, that being mail, messenger, games, Flickr, maps, personals and answers – all of which have tenure. None of this stuff is new. In fact most of it is ancient, internet-wise.

Do you know anybody that uses OMG? Or real estate? Or Shine? Or Buzz? Or Green? If you said, "No, and um.. I’ve never heard of those Y! services", that wouldn’t surprise me a bit. The problem is that this new stuff is what Y! wants you to use. But the sad part is that had you not read it here, you most likely didn’t know they existed.

In comparison, when Google offers a new service, they let you know about it. The same is true for Microsoft. When something new comes around in the Windows Live system, you’re informed. Both these companies put a good effort into letting the masses know of the good/cool/interesting things they make. But as for Yahoo? Not so much. That’s a problem and hopefully one they will fix.

Is Yahoo’s decision to offload the search to Microsoft a good thing, or is this the beginning (or the continuation) of the end for Yahoo?

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 that periodically have netsplits, kicking you off your own channel. IRC for messaging is an imperfect solution at best.

These days however there are two super-easy ways to get IM direct on your site that is true IM and not IRC.

Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox

This creates a small widget-style box that you embed direct on your web site. It does not reveal your Yahoo ID (big plus). In your Yahoo! Messenger you will see a new "friend" category for the Pingbox you create.

Pingbox allows for any color customization you can think of, three different text sizes and emoticon support.

You use Pingbox just as you would with any other Yahoo! Messenger contact that’s on your contact list.

IMPORANT NOTE:

Pingbox will not work unless you specifically have Allow Yahoo! web sites to show when I am online checked in the messenger client.

To see if you have this enabled or not, launch Yahoo! Messenger, then click Messenger then Privacy.

You should have the "allow" box checked, like this:

If you don’t, check the box, then close and restart Yahoo! Messenger. Pingbox will start to work after you do that.

Meebo Me Widget

Meebo is known as one of the best in-browser instant messengers there is. Something else that it offers is the ability to create custom IM chat widgets for your web site.

To create a widget, login to your Meebo account (if you don’t have one it’s free to register), click preferences then meebo me widgets, like this:

From there you create your widget.

Like Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox, you can configure it to say any name you want and not reveal your Meebo username.

Meebo Me widgets are not as fanciful as Pingbox, but definitely get the job done.

In addition, if you want a way to chat without having a Meebo session open in the browser, just use Meebo Notifier. This will put a small icon (in Windows) in your taskbar. Whenever you receive a message you’ll get a toaster pop-up where you can click and reply.

Why would this be useful?

Here’s a few examples:

• For a gamer that runs a guild that wants an easy way for people to contact you without revealing your IM screen name.
• For a small biz owner that wants a free solution for direct-IM contact with customers that looks nice and works.
• For anyone that wants a universal solution for IM that doesn’t require anyone to use any specific IM service.

I’m sure you can think of a few more, but you get the idea. Having easy ways for people to IM you without the need for specific clients/services is good to have.

Yahoo, yes (that Yahoo) made some significant changes to their main web site. While this angered some, to those I say this: Yahoo is not Google, and I’m glad it’s not. If you’re expecting Y! to be another Google clone, it isn’t. And it shouldn’t be.

The first thing I do on Yahoo is switch over to the compact view and change the color to blue (just my preference). This is located at the far right:

From there, Y! is slim and trim, the way I like it:

For those using 1024×768 displays, yes, Y! is still very friendly to that resolution (even in Y’s "full" mode).

Above: Adding in (or removing) favorites is easy. And yes you can add in non-Yahoo sites.

You will notice that at least in compact mode, Yahoo.com does not scroll-scroll-scroll down like it did before. It’s been cleaned up considerably and yes it is easier to use.

My only immediate complaints are these:

No links are underlined

I’m a fervent believer in having as many links underlined as possible to there’s no guessing whatsoever, especially for the color blind who cannot distinguish black text from blue.

Should have more my.yahoo.com features

My.yahoo.com has things like tabs and moveable boxes. The main Y! site should have this also.

If you’re going to have a logo color change, it should be universal

Pick a color and stick with it, Yahoo. Yahoo.com has a purple logo now. My.yahoo.com has a red logo. Mail.yahoo.com and several other Y! services still have the red logo.

If you’re going to commit to the purple, then, well.. commit.

Are you a Yahoo?

Many of you out there use Yahoo.com as your home page. Are the changes welcome or should Y! have stayed with the old format?

Some sites make it easy (more or less) to delete your account if you don’t feel like using it any longer. Others however make it exceedingly difficult.

Recently I was going thru my password manager and realized there were a ton of accounts I simply didn’t use anymore, so I figured I’d get rid of them. Some I was successful with, while others.. not so much.

Deleting a Gmail account

Google has their services set up in such a way where Gmail is a product attached to your primary Google account. For example, FeedBurner, Picasa Web Albums, Google Docs, Google Alerts and so on are all products.

You have a few options here. You can either delete just the Gmail account, or delete the Google account entirely.

• Go to https://www.google.com/accounts (and yes, the https must be present).
• After logging in, click the Edit link next to My products.
• If you want to delete Gmail alone, click Remove Gmail permanently.
• If you want to close the entire account, click Close account and delete all services and info associated with it.

Deleting a Hotmail account

Microsoft is similar to Google in the respect that Hotmail is deemed a product attached to your Windows Live ID.

• Login to your Hotmail/MSN/Live account at http://login.live.com
• Click Close account
• You may be told that the system is unable to do it and that you have to "Close your Microsoft account". Go ahead and do it.

Is the Hotmail account truly closed at that point? No. The account will be treated as if you haven’t logged in for a few months. After a few days, all information will be removed, so I guess that’s the closest definition of "closed" you can get with a Windows Live ID.

Closing a Yahoo account

Yahoo makes it easy. Follow the steps here.

Closing an AIM account

I could not find a way to close an AOL/AIM account. After a Google search, it would appear the only way to "deactivate" one is to not login to it for six months. Not an elegant solution by any means, but it’s at least something.

Finding links to close other types of web accounts

All web services should make closing your account easy, but unfortunately they don’t. Everybody does it differently. But there are a few common threads.

• Names: It can be called "Close Account", "Remove Account", "Delete Account", "Terminate Account", etc.
• Links: I’ve seen several instances where the "Close My Account" link is black and non-underlined making it look like plain text when in fact it’s a link.
• FAQ: Try searching the FAQ for the web service you’re trying to close.
• Profile: Sometimes the link to close an account will be listed under "Profile".

If you cannot close the account, what do you do?

You will run into some instances where there is no way to close the account (like Identi.ca and AIM). Chances are the reason you want to close it out to begin with is to stop getting those stupid emails from the service. The easiest thing to do is to edit the profile and change it to use a throw-away address. Once done you won’t get anymore crap from them in your email.

Ask anyone who invests in tech stocks for a description of what they’re like and the answer you’ll most likely receive is that they’re volatile, meaning to vary often or widely.

One of Yahoo’s oldest web sites, Yahoo! Finance (YHOO), is a good place to check on how tech stocks are doing. You can also perform quick stock searches by searching for the symbol on Google, ex. searching for GOOG.

Side note: Speaking of the GOOG, they might be purchasing Twitter, so that will be an interesting one to follow.

To those interested in tech stocks, or any stocks for that matter, but have no idea how they would perform or how to go about investing, I always suggest playing fantasy stock market. This is fun, easy and most of the time free so it requires no investment on your part.

Here’s a few suggestions if you want to play the market fantasy-style:

• FantasyStockMarket.com – Simple site, easy to navigate and get started.
• Virtual Stock Exchange – This is run by MarketWatch, a well-known finance site.
• Wall Street Survivor – This one has an interesting twist because you can actually win real cash and prizes here, so the game itself can actually be profitable.

Why play fantasy with tech stocks instead of doing the real thing?

The answer is to gain experience before taking the plunge, so to speak. Some people say tech stocks are totally worth it while others say it’s a complete waste of time and money, and far too unstable. However with the experience gained from fantasy playing, you can answer the question for yourself whether or not they’re worth it – free.

What’s your take? Would you or do you invest in tech stocks?

Does it sound like a boom or bust? Let us know in the comments.

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 just about everything else right from the browser.

With web-based IM you have from-service and multi-protocol.

Multi-Protocol

The one most people know is Meebo. It has a fantastic interface and is super-easy to set up and use. However there’s also eBuddy,ILoveIM, IMhaha, IMUnitive, KoolIM, mabber, MSN2Go, radiusIM and Wablet.

Needless to say you’ve got a lot of choice.

Do you have a review of one of the above? Leave a comment. I haven’t had the time to test all the above, so if you’ve got a few moments to spare, let us know what you think of one or more of the above.

From-Service

These are web-based versions of IM from the service providers themselves.

Yahoo: http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/
Windows Live: http://messidog.live.com or http://webmessenger.msn.com
AIM: http://www.aim.com/aimexpress.adp

Here are the rating from best to worst:

Best: AIM

AIM has updated their web interface and said honestly it’s the best there is. Flash-based, smooth animations, no weirdness with extraneous pop-ups (other than just one for the IM window itself), in-window tabbed conversations, familiar friendly sounds – this one has got the works. If you use AIM you will take to this like a fish to water.

Good: Yahoo

This looks very similar to the Yahoo Messenger app itself. However the problem is that it takes up the whole browser and I could not find any way to "detach" the IM. But other than that this is a solid performer. It has tabs, very friendly interface and a simple clean design. If you use Yahoo Messenger you’ll definitely want to try this.

Worst: Windows Live

Where Microsoft excels with it’s Windows Live Messenger client, their web messenger is a joke. It’s absolutely awful. The "messidog" address almost never works. You’ll get "An error has occurred" and be left flat on attempt to login.

The other address does work, but the interface looks like MSN Messenger 7. That’s bad. Bear in mind the current client is version 2009 (version 9). It’s also plagued with pop-up warnings left and right. This is a web messenger designed for 2002, not 2009. I have no idea why Microsoft keeps such a horrible web IM around like this. They’ve made such a huge effort to make all the Live services better and more friendly but haven’t touched the IM portion whatsoever. Very strange.

You’re far better off just using one of the multi-protocol services above.

What’s your take? App or Web?

Have IM web apps come far enough to make you give up your IM client or are there specific features that keep you "local", so to speak? Let us know.

Written recently on CNET is an author claiming that the reason most people use Google for internet searching is habitual and nothing more.

I was forced to agree with this after trying it out for myself – but only after that. Originally my thought was that Google’s search is unmatched and there’s no way Yahoo search or Live search can compare.

But I was wrong.

After performing several searches using generic words (like computer) and then advanced phrases (like tampa red light camera), the results were surprising. No matter which I used, the relevance of the results – which is what counts the most – of the search results were up to speed using all three search providers.

You can think of relevance by asking a simple question when you see the search results, that being, "Was this what I was looking for?" If the answer is yes, the results were relevant. If not, they weren’t.

There was a time when Google was far superior to any other internet search provider – and this was for years. But it would appear Yahoo and Live have caught up. And in some cases the rivals perform better than Google. Example: A search for tampa florida on Yahoo returns a "Top Rated Things To Do" for that area; it’s useful and very visible. It also lists better-placed advertising for apartments and rentals; something many who search for Tampa want to know about.

Do you use Google for everything search?

You might be using it only out of habit.

Very recently, Yahoo! announced it would limit some (keyword there) of its data retention to a sparse (and unheard of) 90 days.

Privacy advocates have been screaming loudly for a very long time that web companies – particularly search engines – hold on to data that can personally identify an individual for far too long.

The fact Yahoo has stepped up and laid down its own 90-day rule is a victory for privacy advocates. It’s a safe bet that Google and Microsoft will follow suit in short order.

When I say "sparse", I truly mean it. The previous data retention from Yahoo was 13 months. Google strips out some data after 9 months and Microsoft holds on to data for a whopping 18 months.

What does this all mean in simple terms?

For example, if you still use the same ISP you did 18 months ago, any search you performed on www.live.com (Microsoft) is still stored somewhere on a Microsoft server – even if you weren’t logged in with a Windows ID because the searches are recorded by IP as well as ID.

With Google, data is stored whether logged in with a Google ID or not, just like Microsoft. Every single Google search you’ve made from your home has been recorded and stored for the past 9 months.

For those that would say "Yeah, so?", consider how much web searching you do on the internet; it says a lot about who you are and possibly your family as well. Do you really want web companies privately researching you based on your search habits? Of course you don’t – but that’s what is happening at present, save for Yahoo.

Personally speaking I would applaud it if Google and Microsoft would adopt the same 90-day data retention Yahoo does. Fingers crossed.

Situation: You’re up in the wee hours of the morning (around 1 or 2am) and find this oh-so cool YouTube video that you want to e-mail to your friends.

However if you send off the link at that time of the night everybody knows when you sent it. You are basically admitting to all “Yes, I was up at two in the morning doing stupid stuff on my computer.” Oh, the ridicule. Oh, the shame. Continued

Sometimes you may sign up for some type of service on the internet (instant messaging, social networking, etc.) that creates a public profile. And maybe later on you forgot to delete it. This could work against you later on especially if you have posted things in the past you forgot about.

See video below for more details.