Oh me oh my... (Battle of the Instant Messengers)

Member Name: EazyDude

Product:	Battle of the Instant Messengers
Date:	22/01/02 (300 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Must see ops

Disadvantages: Choices

what a fine pickle we're all in. Those of us who spend any time dithering about on the net, are more than likely to have an instant messenger system of some sort another. The big question is... which one should you use and why?

What the heck is an Instant Messenger System?
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*** In a nutshell ***

To put it simply, all it is is a little program that identifies when your friends are online. Once you know that they are online, they enable you to send each other a series of short messages, rather than waiting for long emails (which deserve long replies).

There's more than one piece of software that does this. The popular ones that seem to be doing the rounds at the moment are:-

1) ICQ (http://www.icq.com/download)
2) MSN Messenger (http://messenger.msn.co.uk)
3) AOL Instant Messenger (http://www.aim.com)
4) Yahoo Messenger

*** Outside the nutshell ***

Each of these is readily available from the internet. From the addresses above. Problem is, they all do slightly different things, with slightly different effectiveness. Little things such as sending files is useful, but not essential. Others may not allow offline messaging, which may be essential if your chatmate loses their connection.


Why should I use one?
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You don't have to use one, by any means. If you don't spend that much time on the net, you may not ever see the need for using one. Alternatively you may not want to be contacted by others. A few people I know have ended up switching their instant messenger system off, purely because someone they know, or half know, will probably get in touch with them, when they don't want to be contacted.

The Battle Commences
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Here follows a precis on my experience with the various messengers.

1) ICQ

Always have used this. To start wi
th no one I really knew was on this but gradually, people have come on it. It's the main one that I use, but it does have it's bugs.

Pros -

--- Can send SMSs to people worldwide, includes people without ICQ (this did go down briefly, but seems to be back up. Need version 2001b onwards)
--- Can send Instant Messages online or offline (it doesn't matter if the person you want to write to is online or not. You can use it as short emailing)
--- Email monitoring (I've got it set up so that when I have mail in my Inbox, Outlook starts up. Courtesy of ICQ)
--- Access from the web (http://www.icq.com/icqlite - A versatile web version of ICQ)
--- Works through firewalls (security thing... don't ask)
--- "live" chat sessions (you can see what each other is typing)

Cons -
--- Security issues (don't ask me what these are exactly, as I've always shown a blind eye to these. Loads of people will tell you it's full of holes though. If you're into that sort of stuff...)
--- Spam (loads of people complain about the amount of junk messages they get. I've set all the options in ICQ, so I don't get any)
--- Too many options to play with (If you're not into computers 'n' stuff, there is the simple option of ICQ. Trouble is, I don't think many people like the simple version)
--- Chunky software (ICQ has become very "bloated". It takes a while to load up now. You can use older versions if you can find them, they're not as "bloated")

2) MSN Messenger

I've come to use this only through peer pressure. Basically, anyone with a Hotmail address or an MSN membership can get one, without signing up for anything extra.

Pros -
--- Integration with Hotmail (You get to see who's online when you're signed into Hotmail AND it monitors when you have new mail in your Inbox)
--- Light client (means there&
#39;s not much to download, nor load up)
--- Simple (may not have some features such as "live" chat, but that's what keeps the program small)
--- Nice little popups (When anyone signs on, or send you a message, a little box pops up from the bottom right hand corner to tell you what the message is)
--- Easy to set up Netmeeting (another program that enables meetings online to be held using webcams and microphones)

Cons -
--- Persistent ads
--- No outside of Hotmail monitoring
--- Poor contact list arranging (Basically I got annoyed when it couldn't do what ICQ could do, then again, it's not ICQ. May get annoying if you have many contacts)
--- Annoying nice little popups (When anyone signs on, or send you a message, a little box pops up from the bottom right hand corner to tell you what the message is)
--- Files sent from another friend, don't have a choice as to where to save your file
--- No offline messaging. (Bad design I think. If someone else goes offline in the midst of you typing... message is lost forever!)
--- Can't use through Firewalls

3) AOL Messenger
I have to confess to using AOL as my ISP to dial up into the net. This has an integral form of Messenger, but I can't vouch for this being the fully fledged version.

Pros -
--- Simple, very simple (allows sending text messages on the AOL dialup software)

Cons
--- What about everything else?
--- Can't send offline messages

4) Yahoo Messenger
I've never tried, and don't have the desire to try. I don't know anyone on it! But you can try it and see...

What about those programs that integrate all of them?
---------------------------------------------- ------
Well, you can definitely try them if you like. It does mean that you only have to use one program instead of 2, or even 3. I tried the likes of Jabber and Odigo (find on www.download.com), b
ut didn't like them. They do indeed integrate more than one messenger system, but by being the Jack of All Trades, they are master of none.

I like to use other bits and pieces of the software, such as SMSing, and filesending. These are definitely missed in these all-in-one packages. At least they were when I last tried them.

Which one should I use doc?
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There's no right answer for this but...

"The one that all your friends use."

This answer is much the same that I'd give anyone buying a new mobile, but for a different reason, but then that's another kettle of fish... There's no point in being on one messenger system when all your friends are busy on others. For this reason, I actually use two, MSN Messanger and ICQ. MSN Messnger less so... ICQ a lot more.

There may be one that you actually like more than the others. Try all the ones you need to out and stick with the one that you like the best (oh, and the reason above).

One last word of advice?

Read some individual ops on some messengers! :)




Thanks for reading.

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