Instant messengers have sure made life that much more convenient - and at the same time also very intrusive.
Instant messaging has truly evolved into a very addictive activity-akin to a puff or a cup of tea.
If E-mail changed the way we wrote letters or communicated then Instant messaging beats writing e-mails!
Always online and accessible - instant gratification to see a friend or acquaintance logging in - a short and sweet hello - and we have a conversation that is instantly responsive and very satisfying.
Coupled with some very innovative and useful features - instant messengers have become the de-facto form of communication that has become a rage world wide.
The various cyber cafes across the length and breath of our country are doing roaring business thanks to the flood of internet users who are logged on to MSN and Yahoo messenger with ICQ following a close third.
MSN Messenger with its huge following (thanks to Hotmail and Microsoft) leads the brat pack and offers very good reach and convenience. Coupled with Microsoft Outlook Express it has a natural pick up and footprint.
Features like send a file or photo have made this very versatile and easy to use and share data. Also has a facility to upload your digital pictures into a personal album which you can share with friends and relatives worldwide restrictively or freely as per your choice.
Voice conversation and web conferencing complete the package and make this a must have on your desktop.
Yahoo Messenger too has more or less the same features and has caught on like wildfire. Growing community users and group messaging facilities make it share top honours with MSN Messenger. Coupled with group features and online file sharing this too has become a must have on any desktop. Ease of use and convenient links to mail and calendar wherein you can feed in birthday reminders makes this a very good tool. Photo albums similar to above mentioned is also a part of this IM(Instant Messenger)
ICQ was actually the pioneer (If I am not mistaken) but got sidelined by the more voracious MSN and hep Yahoo. It has one very useful feature not in the above two which is SMS to mobiles ( I have personally been using it to send SMS to Orange Mobiles -maximum 10 in a day) This is the one feature that has made me stick on to my ICQ Number till now. But its kinda funny that it doesn’t allow me to SMS to BPL users in Bombay - Haven’t tried any other cell operator in India or worldwide though must give it a shot one of these days.
There are more locally centric types which have also evolved in to favourites like the Indiatimes Instant messenger with a USP-it allows one to use MSN + Yahoo + ICQ all together with just one login into Indiatimes Instant Messenger.
Then there is the Rediff Bol which is supported by MTNL- Bombay On Line hence Rediff bol.
There are many others like Mirch and Pirch besides the earlier UNIX based ones during the ealier VSNL student a/c days of Rs.500/- for 500 hours of text based chat and browse only.
I would love to hear more personal observations from MS users about this.
Also I think MS should incorporate an IM too into its website to enable MSers to chat online and share views and comments in real time.
Copyright reserved-Raja Sagar