Technology

Mac or Windows: Chatting for dummies

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Internet Messengers are the easiest way to get in touch over the internet.

Today's new Jabber clients talk to a multitude of service providers and share contacts within the framework. As a move to an online system this post talks about how and where to find a simple and effective online system for internet messaging.

Every one of us netizens have at one point or the other tried out an IM (Internet Messaging) client. Yahoo and MSN messengers are very popular. A couple of years ago Google launched Google Talk. Then there are monumental creations like ICQ which embodied the concept of IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

'Chatting' as it is frequently called, is a form on online communication where instant messages are passed between two or more online clients. You can do a one-to-one chat with your friends or join a group chat at a 'chat room'. Both are effective ways of discussion without the added cost of a telephone bill, yet more effective and advanced than a telephone system. Today's chat features include black boards for showing graphics and charts, to a file transfer system to send photos and documents, to even VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), where you can use headphones and a microphone to talk to the other party.

Version of online messengers have been there for quite some time. Yahoo has Webmessenger and MSN has one too. But there's another site which can sign you into Yahoo, MSN, AIM and GoogleTalk. Meebo. Using this service you can easily log into all the above and chat with any one of your contacts with ease.

Online messengers are feature limited, because of proprietary technologies developed into each individual company's messenger. For example, VoIP may not be supported because of differences in the way voice data is handled, but this seems to be a common feature worth investing a standards based technology. Unfortunately, corporations want to bind their users to their technology and hence the lack of solid adherence to a standards based protocol. Funny, but true.

Skype on the other hand have a superb service and excellent communications system but are not yet open to all. So till VoIP is standard, web messengers will only be used for text and transfer based communications.

Something to look forward to...