ICQ is the first Instant messenger. ICQ thoug is a very good IM has its own prs and cons. I use ICQ MSN and Yahoo and have found limitations in each and every IM. Now wsince the Topic is about ICQ , We use ICQ for our official chatting purpose.
Pros.
(1) A very good archiving system. You need not be worried about saving the message since it is automatically archived.
(2) You have two option to chat , one is by sending message and the other one is by chatting. in which the other person can instantly see what the guy on the opposaite end is chatting
(3) A very user friendly way to see the personal details of the other chatter.
(4) Enables me to send SMS to mobile devices
(5) let me check my PoP 3 mail without much hassle
(6)A very good answering machine
(7) let me leave offline message
(8) Enables you to send same mesage to a group at a time and as a Email and Chat .
(9) A very good PIM system
Cons
(1) The ICQ Number which you have to remember
(2) User name and message being stored in the local PC makes it very non user freindly when you are travelling
(3) the peneteration of ICQ is very less. very few cyber cafes you will find ICQ installed
(4) Some time give wrong messgae of user being online even when he is offline
(5) Time required to connect
(6) Lots of advertisements (mostly prono advts)
(7) No emoticons support
(8) size of the application
Over all ICQ is a decent chat messnger, but need few modifications