Online, smileys are a powerful way to transport emotions. The typographic smileys are generally known as emoticons. Placed with care and read with an eye for detail, they clarify the meaning of a statement and improve interpretation.

Meanwhile, chatters across the globe have developed a huge selection of emoticons and smileys on most instant messengers. If you always want to hit the right nerve and never pick the wrong expression, use our emoticon guide to popular codes for smiley faces.

Western Emoticons

Western emoticons are typically written from left to right. Here are 15 of the most popular ones.

1. Smile

: – )   or   :-]   or   :3   or   :> stands for happiness.

2. Grin

: – D   expresses great happiness or a victory.

3. Frown

: – (   or   :-c represents sadness or disappointment. The latter can also mean great sadness.

4. Wink

; – )   or   ,-)   or   *-) indicates a joke or double entendre in what was said.

5. Tongue

: – P   or   : – p   or   :-Þ   or   :-b is an emoticon to tease, often used as a joke.

6. Open mouth

:-O   or   : – () stands for surprise or shock.

7. Distorted mouth

: – / means skepticism, being annoyed or uneasy.

8. Beaked lips

:-X   or   :-*   or   :-<> expresses a kiss, love and affection. But careful, this one can be ambiguous.

:-@   or   : – ) ~~ ( – :   or   : – )~~~~ stand for french kissing.

9. Sealed lips

:-X   or   :-# stands for embarrassment. Notice the ambiguity.

10. Halo

0:-) represents an angel or innocence and is often used in a playful manner.

11. Tear

:’-( shows a crying face and expresses sadness.

12. Horns

>:-)   or   >:-D is used to express evil.

13. Blank

: – | expresses boredom, but can also stand for no comment.

14. Spittle

:-p~~ represents drooling.

15. Arrow

>.>   or   <.<   or   >_>   or   <_< points the way in which to look. Technically, this is an eastern emoticon.

Eastern Emoticons

In contrast to western codes for smiley faces, eastern emoticons can be read without tilting the head. Here is a selection, which does not correspond to the previous one.

1. Smile for happiness

(^_^)   or   (^.^)

2. Open mouth for laughing or singing

(^o^)

3. Wink for joking

(`_^)   or   (^_~)

4. Closed eyes for sadness or sighing

(-_-)

5. Lowered head for bitterness or disappointment

(._.)   or   (,_,)

6. Sweat drop for nervousness or embarrassment

(^_^’)

7. Big eyes for wonder (seriously?)

0.o   or   O_o

8. Beaked lips for a kiss

(^x^)   or   (^3^)

9. Blushing for embarrassment

^///^   or   >///<   or   o///o

10. Crossed out eyes for death

(X_X)

11. Tears for sadness and crying

(;_;)   or   (T_T)

12. Distorted eyes for pain, failure or frustration

(>_<)   or   (>.<)

13. Closed eyes and zzZ for sleeping

(-_-)zzZ   or   -_-zzZ

14. Headphones for listening to music

d^_^b   or   d-_-b

15. Distorted eyes for annoyance

(>_>)

There are many, many more emoticons to express every shade of emotion you can think of. You will find more western emoticons here and here. The latter also includes emoticons that represent celebrities and a list of available MSN and Yahoo! smileys. More eastern emoticons can be found here.

By the way, most chat clients automatically convert codes for text smiley faces to graphics. If you want to prevent this, there is a simple trick: simply type the characters in reverse order, for example (-: instead of : – ).

Do you use emoticons and did you come across different meanings of the ones mentioned above? Please share potential ambiguities with us!

Image credits: jaylopez

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I’m a blogger, and as such, I am in need of a way to reach out to others while being interesting to readers. Wetoku can help!

Wetoku offers a simple way to meet someone online, record the meeting (or interview) and then share it with others. You may use it for video chat, conduct online interviews, etc.

Our Makeuseof authors have touched on several video chat type offerings that can help with online interviews (Tokbox, Eyejot, and Gmail’s video chat features). Well, wetoku makes meeting face to face with someone far away even easier. We’ll see how easy it is later in this article.

Wetoku takes simplicity to a whole new level. You login, set-up the interview, invite the interviewee, and hit the record button. It really is that easy!

Oh, and the simplicity doesn’t stop there! Sharing the video meetings/interviews with others involves all of just copying and pasting embedding code! Basically, you meet the person, hit record, hit stop, and the code pops right up! Copy and paste it like you would a YouTube video (or some other video sharing site) and there you go!

I would personally like to see some more options on the sharing end of things. I would like to see the ability to download the file for safe keeping AND for sharing on other social video sites like YouTube.  They are still working on things, and from what I can tell, they seem to be listening to feedback, so there’s still hope!

Setting up an account is really simple. Just sign up with the invitation code you were provided with (see the end of this article to get one). Once signed up and logged in, you’ll want to click the “start your interview” button and enter the information for the new online interview, including title, names and a description. Once that’s all set up, you’ll be faced with a cool invitation link which you promptly send to your interviewee anxiously awaiting the online interview:

You have to allow your camera to be detected, nothing new to web-based webcam operation. Once you and the interviewee are both on, the video will look similar to this (only with much prettier faces, I’m sure):

The round button is the record button. There is also a nifty little settings panel. I think that only pro accounts have the option of the higher quality videos (I tested the differences of quality and there is a difference). 

You can also change the volume of the microphone:

When you’re done recording, you can choose to redo it or publish it and you’re given the embed code. It’s that easy! When finished, you’ll have an online interview similar to this one conducted by wetoku Dave of Rick Calvert, CEO of Blogworld and New Media Expo:

And that’s just about all there is to it. With wetoku you can compete with the other “talking heads” out there, talking and interviewing people from all over the world!

Like I mentioned in the beginning, wetoku is a new company and they are still in private beta. They gave us 200 invites to share with you all! If you’re interested in an invite, just toss me an email timlenahan[at]makeuseof[dot]com with the EXACT phrase “wetoku invite” in the subject line (these emails will be filtered by the subject line so it must be exact or you may be overlooked) and I’ll email you an invitation code. First come first serve!

Check them out! When you do, let us know your thoughts in comments. And in case you’re familiar with some other tools to conduct video interviews share them with us in comments.

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In those circumstances I need a good tool that can record the phone call so that I can later transcribe it into a text interview. If you want to know how do you use skype for these sort of interviews – my tool of choice for this task is HotRecorder. HotRecorder is one of the most effective tools to record any VoIP call, not only Skype. However, if you are a Skype user you can rest assured that it’s a tool that’s very well integrated with the Skype application.

Getting Set Up to Record a Skype Call

Installing and using HotRecorder is about as simple as it gets. There’s virtually no setup. After you run the install and launch the application, it attaches (literally) to your Skype window. Whenever you move your Skype window around the screen, the HotRecorder window stays attached at the upper left edge.

There are a few things that you may want to configure in HotRecorder depending on your preferences. For example, in the options menu, you can assign a folder on your computer to save all of the audio files. The Sound Quality and Recording Type settings are also important because they’ll ultimately determine how quickly the size of your audio file grows.

If you have a huge hard drive and are only recording the call for yourself, by all means keep the sound quality high and use Stereo sound. However, if your intent is to email the file or you’d like to store it on smaller media that doesn’t have quite as much storage capacity, you may want to consider using Medium or Low quality.

Recording a Skype Call

When you hit “Rec” and then dial a phone number or connect with another user on Skype, you’ll see the HotRecorder display status change to “Recording” and the size of the audio file updates as well so that you know how much space the audio file is going to consume on your hard drive or USB drive.

The current time duration of the call is also displayed, so if you’re running a Podcast or radio show and you don’t want the conversation to go beyond a certain time interval, you’ll know exactly how long the discussion is going. If there are parts of the conversation that you don’t want to record, just click on “Pause,” and then when you’re ready to start rolling again you can click “Rec” again and the call will continue.

Once you click on “Stop,” you’ll be presented with the screen above so that you can fill out details about the phone call including who you talked to and anything else you want to note about the call. The important field is “Conversation with” because the listing of your calls shows this clearly, and it’s one of the best ways you’ll have of remembering your calls. You can use any filename convention you like, so keep it in a format that you’ll be able to organize. In my case I sort all of my interviews by date, so I keep the date in the filename.

Once you click on save, you’ll see the application encoding the audio and saving it to file. One interesting thing to note here is how the audio will get encoded when you choose audio. HotRecorder saves the conversation in 2 channels – meaning that during playback your interviewee’s voice will play on the left and your voice will get played on the right. This is actually pretty cool if someone has stereo headphones. Unfortunately if one of your listeners has mono headphones or will be listening to your audio file on any mono device – the conversation will seem oddly “one-sided.”

Playback and Extra Options

Playing conversations back after you’re done recording is as simple as clicking on the “Player” tab.

When you click on the Player button, you’ll see a list of all of the conversations you’ve had. As I mentioned above, the saved recordings are displayed by who the conversation was with. If you accumulate a lot of conversations over time, there’s also a search feature available (this is where your description and keywords will come in handy).

There are a couple of cool extra features with HotRecorder, and one of them is an answering machine. Personally, I don’t use this feature – but I have to admit I like the fact that unlike your typical answering machine, HotRecorder will record the message that your caller leaves, attach the file to an email, and send off the email to any email address you like. You can be anywhere in the world and never miss a phone message again as long as you have Internet access to check your email.

If you run a podcast or a radio show, another cool feature are the “emotisounds,” which let you embed various sound effects into the conversation. This can get really hilarious if you play it right. Whenever someone says something that you don’t like, just click “boo” or if they’re boring you to death just click on “Snore” – you’ll have your listeners in stitches.

If you use HotRecorder the way that I do – that is, recording phonecalls for later playback and transcription to text, the free version is more than enough. I don’t care what format the file is stored in and I really don’t care about the advertisement panel at the top. However if you want to convert your files over to MP3 or WAV format so you can use them anywhere, you’ll need the inexpensive premium version that comes with an embedded AudioConverter.

You might also want to check out earlier Simon’s article that lists a couple of alternative programs to record Skype calls.

How do you use Skype to do interviews? Do you have your own solution for recording VoIP calls? Share them with the MUO readers in the comments section below!

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Here’s a list of 10 essential software apps for web development on a Mac.

10. TextWrangler is a multipurpose text editor that works for editing code and plain text documents. It can even open files from (and save them to) remote FTP and SFTP servers.

9. Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator. It is the first open source program to adopt Spiro curves. You can also go through their clip art collection and find dozens of images made with Inkscape that are free to use or modify.

8. Cyberduck is the all-in-one FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDav and Mosso Cloud Files browser application. Web developers often need to switch between different file systems, and Cyberduck does this without a hiccup. It works with Textmate (which has a free 30 day trial), so you can open files from Cyberduck in Textmate, edit, save and upload. Read more about FTP clients for Mac here.

7. Gimp is the second-most popular photo editing software program on the market, second only to Adobe Photoshop. The difference? Gimp is absolutely free! You can do just about everything in Gimp that you can do in Adobe Photoshop, so web developers will find this a welcome and wallet friendly addition to their software arsenal.

6. Aptana takes up where Textmate leaves off in some aspects. It is a full featured code editor, but adds the FTP support of Cyberduck, as well as important web technologies like Ajax, Adobe AIR and PHP. Read more about Aptana here on MUO.

5. Firefox is a must have for web development because of three great add-ons – Firebug, the Web Developer toolbar and ColorZilla. Firebug lets you edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page; while the Web Developer toolbar adds additional tools like clearing cookies, disable CSS, display ruler and display source. ColorZilla lets you pick colors from websites or images online, so you can match them to your web designs, plus measure the distance between two points on a website.

4. JAlbum helps you make attractive photo galleries for websites. JAlbum comes with various templates built-in, but you can also customize your own template to better match a web project you’re working on. Read about 5 more Excellent Mac Apps for Graphic & Web Design

3. Colloquy is a basic IRC client that every web developer will use at one point or another. Many web platforms use IRC for support, including WordPress.

2. MAMP is what you need to manage websites locally when you are without an internet connection or want to test changes without making them live on a website. It is easy to install MAMP and have access to Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X. It is also a stand-alone program, so if you need to install it, it won’t interfere with your OSX installation. Plus, you can use it to install WordPress on your Mac.

1. iTerm is a feature-filled Terminal emulator for OSX. You can bookmark your frequently used sessions, have tabbed windows with multiple sessions and more.

Do you have any suggestions for better similar apps? Let’s hear them in the comments!

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At the outset, let me confess that machine translation usually sucks. You’re much better off with human translators any day. But what do you do for real-time chat? Till now, one had to use a different IM client like MeGlobe, to chat in a foreign language. Now, you can use Microsoft’s TBot. No installation required!

Microsoft has an impressive array of translation tools for users, webmasters, and developers, like Live Translator, but the release of Windows Live Messenger Translation bot (TBot) last year is still not widely known. Using TBot, you can chat with others in up to 13 foreign languages, or even chat with TBot itself to practice learning a foreign language. What’s more, you do not actually need to use Windows Live Messenger. You can use any IM client you like, as long as it supports the MSN protocol. Let’s see how you can use TBot in 3 easy steps to chat in a foreign language.

Step #1: Add TBot to your Contacts

To get started, you will first need to add TBot to your contact list.

From the Live Messenger toolbar, select the ‘Add a contact’ option as shown above, and add ‘mtbot@hotmail.com’ as the contact address.

Click ‘Send Invitation’ on the next screen to add TBot to your contact list. There is no need for any personal message. You should now see ‘Translator’ as one of your available contacts as shown below:

That’s it. You are all set!

Step #2: Invite TBot to a Conversation

When you want TBot’s translation services to help in a conversation, click the ‘Invite’ menu in the conversation window.

From the contact list that appears, select ‘Translator (Available, Agent)’.

TBot enters the conversation and asks you to select the target language.

I chose Russian as an example, and typed ‘12’:

To check out the list of TBot’s commands, you can enter ‘TBot ?’:

Step #3: Chat in a Foreign Language

For the sake of this post, to imitate two people chatting, I used two different IM clients – Windows Live Messenger and Pidgin. Let us suppose I’m English Dude with Live Messenger, chatting with Russian Gal who is averse to installing any Microsoft software and thus uses Pidgin on Linux. Russian Gal uses the ‘TBot change’ command to select Russian as her Source Language:

With TBot all set to translate at both ends, both of them now chat. This is what English Dude sees in his Live Messenger:

While Russian Gal sees the following in her Pidgin client:

As you can see, English Dude and Russian Gal are having an engaging conversation with the help of real-time translation by TBot.

TBot has his own profile in Windows Live Spaces, where you will also find a mini-FAQ. If you’re traveling in a foreign country, add TBot to Windows Live Messenger on your Windows Mobile device to get a free Translation Assistant with you!

Have you tried any other real-time translation software? How was your experience with TBot? Do let us know in the comments!

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Especially in a business environment, unsecured IM installations are creating backdoors for hack attacks. This threat has increased manifold because nearly all IM’s allow for exchange of files, images, songs and even peer to peer sharing of entire folders.

Spam, worms, Trojans and viruses are familiar email foes. They are no friends of instant messaging either. So how do we pick our friends from our foes? Perhaps by following what Benjamin Franklin said – Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

Also, by putting these 10 habits in place.

1. Don’t give out your identity

Every IM client asks you to create a screen name. A screen name usually refers to your email ID. Create a screen name which does not touch upon personal information or your real identity. For instance, my screen name is ‘Braniac’ and not ‘Saikat’. And NEVER provide any personal details including credit card numbers and social security number over the internet.

2. Don’t chat with people not on your contact list

Always vet your contact list with people whom you know something about. Talking with Mr. Anonymous at the other end of space may be fraught with risk. It is possible to discover your computer address (i.e. your IP) from an instant message and that usually is the first requirement for a remote hack attack.

Don’t believe everything you read and always verify any information or request for information.

3. Don’t click on spam links

This is what a spam link might look like –



This is probably what you will be bombarded with first. A link tempts you to click it just for the lark. A lot of these links take you to websites which can install spyware stealthily on your computer. For e.g. Viruses and worms with colorful names such as W32.Yalove or W32/Spybot-MQ are potential threats to Yahoo users.
Ignore them.

4. Don’t share files with your chat partner

An IM client like Yahoo allows P2P file sharing. Do not share unknown content even if the person is known. P2P files, like email attachments can carry viruses, Trojan horses, and worms. They are engineered to seed themselves to other members on your buddy list. Be especially cautious when someone sends you an .exe or a .zip file.

5. Don’t let potential hackers reach you

Yahoo has an Ignore user or Report as spam so that he can’t disturb you once again. GTalk has a Block user option. Using this option allows you to keep out the unwanted from repeatedly messaging you. The default security settings in chat software tend to be relatively lax. Thus making you open to attacks. Check the settings and preferences of your chat client to apply stricter permission controls.





6. Don’t Neglect Encryption

Most IM clients lack encryption features. That essentially means that your messages can be tracked and read by eavesdropping hackers using technologies like packet sniffers or similar ones. Passwords are also a security loophole with hardly any client using strong password encryption.

The subject of encryption and strong password protection would require another post by itself. So I hand you over to Tim’s excellent post on How To Secure & Encrypt Your Instant Messaging Chats. Here at MakeUseOf.com we have a lot of posts tagged as ‘passwords’. Why not take a look at ways to set strong passwords.

7. Don’t use an older version of IM – Update

IM client companies spend a lot of effort behind doors to prevent backdoor threats. Newer versions come with bug fixes and enhanced security. For instance, the latest version of Yahoo IM is better integrated with anti-virus solutions like Norton Internet Security and Norton Anti-Virus.

So, always update your IM client as soon as one becomes available. If the chat client does not automatically prompt for an upgrade, go to the website and check your version number with the latest available. You can note the version of your particular client by clicking on Help – About…

8. Don’t download third party plug-ins from unverified sources

A lot of third party plug-ins are available for download which enhance the chatting experience. It is safer and advisable to always download from the IM client websites themselves or from verified sources.

9. Don’t forget to log-out completely

It is an oft repeated habit to click on the [X] button and exit. But this action does not close our IM client completely. Most often, they continue to run in the system tray leaving it ‘open’ for a third person to access it. IMs also have a nasty habit of broadcasting your online presence even if left to run as a background task. Especially in public computers be mindful of logging out and exiting completely. Also, never click on any Remember My Password checkbox during log-in as an added safeguard.



For Yahoo Users: Before you get up, delete your Yahoo Messenger profile. It is located by default at C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Profiles.

10. Don’t forget the value of a good browser, a good firewall and an even better anti-virus

Sometimes we will click a link; sometimes we will download a file. All the precautions in the world will not be able to protect us if we don’t have a secure browser, a good firewall and an anti-virus updated with the latest virus signatures. These three not only protect us from IM attacks but they are the must-haves for any system. Check out our recommendations for security programs in our article about Essential Security Downloads. Or check the MakeUseOf Polls to find out what’s more popular among MakeUseOf readers.

Chatting as against emailing is a real time activity. It is in that sense more social than any other form of web communication. The danger is that chatting can lull us into a false sense of security. Just a few fundamental forethoughts help us to turn that false sense into a more conscious sense of security.

Have you been hacked? Perhaps, you share the concern for a rigorous defense against hackers? Let us know what safety measures you personally use…

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Installing phpFreeChat

• Grab the latest phpfreechat-x.x-setup.php at Sourceforge (1.2 is the latest version at the time of this writing).
• Upload it or move it to a local web server directory. We’re going to be using a XAMPP installation, so we’ve moved it to the root directory. You don’t want to put the install file where you want the chat to be.
• Navigate to the file. Our URL would be http://localhost/phpfreechat-1.2-setup.php. You’ll be greeted with a Pre-Install Check. Hopefully it looks like the picture below. Hit ‘Next’.



• You’ll be prompted for an install path. By default it creates a phpfreechat directory in the current directory, but you can change it to whatever you wish. Hit ‘Next’.



• It’ll ask you to confirm the install. Click ‘Next’. Watch the pretty progress bar. Once it’s finished, click ‘Next’.
• It’ll have installed itself in the directory of your choice, ours being http://localhost/phpfreechat/. Do as it says and delete the phpfreechat-x.x-setup.php file.

Quick Configuration

Setting up the Admin Account

The equivalent of an IRC channel op, the admin password allows you to gain access to privileges such as kicking, banning, and viewing user IP addresses. Admin status is global across all channels.

Prompt for Nickname Upon Entry

By default, the chat assigns you a nickname guest followed by random numbers. To force the user to choose a nickname when they enter:

Remove Censor and Flood Protection

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New visitors to MakeUseOf may wish to review my previous article on creating and using a room on an IRC server, and then head over to WyldRyde for the first method which I will cover.

WyldRyde’s instructions are quite simple, so we’ll skip to step 4, which lets you create a Flash-based HTML widget to embed in your pages. All you must do is enter your channel’s name. If, for whatever reason, you cannot embed HTML on your pages, or perhaps want to use a nice neat text link instead, you may link to http://www.wyldryde.org/chat/chat.php?channel=channelname. You may play with an example WyldRyde chat in my room, at irc.t1mwats0n.com.

Chatzy lets its users create public and private chat rooms, providing a link to the room in the form of, for example, http://www.chatzy.com/445348388829, which can easily be linked to on a webpage, or in an email. The site offers several ways to customize the chat experience to suit your needs.

ChatMaker offers a similar “disposable chat room” service which is very basic, without the features Chatzy offers. There is a paid-upgrade option for extra features. Check out an example at http://www.chatmaker.net/chatap/rooms/t1mwats0n/.

ParaChat’s room creator lets you embed your chat room in a site’s page, as a regular text link, or as a pop-up link. As with ChatMaker, there are paid upgrades available. I’ve created an example embedded chat at http://timdubssandbox.synthasite.com/parachatbasic so that you can see how it looks.

Web-based IM client Meebo (which I’ve mentioned recently) also has a service-on-the-side called Meebo Rooms. The rooms are embeddable, simple to create and allow for sharing of video as well as text. Registering for a Meebo account beforehand will let you keep your room’s users in your buddy list with all your other contacts.

Lastly, Gabbly offers a unique service in that its chat rooms are tied to other websites. To understand what I mean, visit http://gabbly.com/makeuseof.com. You are taken to the site, which has the chat window floating over it. Instantly, everyone visiting MakeUseOf from Gabbly will be in the chat.

While Gabbly allows you to embed in your site a button to launch the chat, you simply have to link to gabbly.com/example.com. Gabbly says that you can make money by placing your own ads in the chat window, but I’m not sure how lucrative such a practice would be.

Please let us know in the comments, if we have missed any stellar web app that allows website owners to add a chat room to their website.

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Here are some of the top tips and tricks that you can use to get more out of Instant messaging.

Set up an Answering Machine

Need an answering machine for your IM network to automatically respond to messages when you are offline? Well you can hack out a bot and have it running, monitoring the incoming messages and replying appropriately or you can simply sign into your account and set response messages.

Answer.im allows you to do just that. You are not even required to register. Log in with the IM credentials of the account you want set up answering for, set the status that will be shown to the users and then type the autoresponse text that will be sent back to the users in case someone happens to ping you while you are offline.

Use a multiprotocol client

These days everything needs to be talking to everything else. You have plants tweeting you when they need to be watered, you can update Twitter using an number of ways, then why not have a single client for all your IM needs?

You shouldn’t be running Yahoo Messenger and GTalk separately and then switching between windows when all kinds of notifications are flashing on your screen. Try something like pidgin. It might lack the occasional feature or two (like voice calls) but it more than makes up for it with tabbed interfaces, a rich set of plugins, customizations, availability for Windows, Linux and Mac and of course the price -> “free”.

Ditch desktop clients altogether

Using a netbook? Or don’t have permissions to install your favorite IM clients? Look towards the web and you won’t be disappointed. There are plenty of choices to help you get that joke across to your buddies even if that nasty admin has all sorts of ‘permission thingys’ going on!

Check out Meebo, ebuddy or imo.im. Each has its pros and cons and David recently did an amazing article on just that.

Encrypt your chat

There are good people like you (yes, I really meant YOU) and then there are bad people. Bad people like to spy on other people, perhaps steal some personal information that can then be used for all kinds of weird stuff.

While the occasional Hi there! types of conversations are fine, there are times when you want to protect your chat and history from prying eyes. Why not encrypt and secure your chat? You can encrypt your chat using both web based clients and desktop clients.

As for encrypting the chat log, you just need to find the location of log files and encrypt them on your computer using something like Truecrypt or just move it to a private directory if you are using ubuntu with ecryptfs.

Recover forgotten passwords

It often happens that you remember a password if you keep entering it often. If you instead set your client to auto-login and remember the password, chances are soon you will forget the password. If that has happened to you, you can recover such remembered passwords that appear as asterisk on the screen. Check out messenpass and other softwares that help you do so.

Create IM hyperlinks

IM hyperlinks allow people to quickly send you a message when they click on the link. All you have to do is format the “href” attribute of the <a> tag according to the IM network you want to add the link for. Check out this article for details.

Read RSS feeds

Try out ZapTXT (ZapTXT on MakeUseOf) and IMfeeds (IMfeeds on MakeUseOf) which allow you to get RSS updates within your chat client.

Use imified

Yeah, we bloggers have the habit of saving the best for last. Imified is without a doubt going to be the best buddy in your buddy list! Imified allows you to access web services, manage to do lists, ping domains and much more all from within your IM client. Mark did a great article on this fabulous tool.

Do you know of anything else you can do with instant messaging?  If you have any good ideas, let us know in the comments.

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Most IM clients, or at least most good ones, require a downloaded client in order to work. That’s fine and good, unless we’re on a different computer, or don’t have administrative privileges on our work computers, or just don’t like extra clutter on our hard drive.

If you fall into any of those camps, here are five totally Web-based, totally free online instant messaging services that you might want to check out.

Meebo

Meebo is the most popular of the Web IM choices, and with good reason. This online instant messaging service works with AIM, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook, MSN, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and even Flixster.

Meebo also offers group chat, a great mobile version (for iPhones and the like), and even access in your Firefox sidebar. There’s support for file-sharing, video chat, and much more – it’s as fully-featured, if not more so, than most desktop IM clients.

My experience with Meebo was that it works best with Facebook chat, and is definitely one of the simplest to use. It’s also incredibly well-funded, which means it’s likely to stick around for a while.

Whether you use it on the site or embed it on your own website, Meebo’s a terrific IM client.

Nimbuzz

Meebo’s not my favorite, though; that prize belongs to Nimbuzz. Nimbuzz is mostly making a name for itself as a client for your cell phone or iPhone (and it’s a great one), but it offers a fabulous Web-based messaging client as well. You can make calls, group chats, send files, and do anything you’d want to do with an IM.

Instead of logging in each time to every one of your networks, you can put them all into an account with Nimbuzz instead. Then, every time you log in, just enter one username and password, and log in to all your IM networks. You can put your buddies into groups, view them by network, or just lump them all into one list.

Though Nimbuzz only has a couple of unique features – like the friend locator, to see where people are – its simplicity of use and gorgeous interface make it my IM application of choice (on every platform – but let’s stick with the Web for now.)

The feature that really sold me, though, was Skype integration – nothing else has it, and Nimbuzz does it very well. It’s a great VOIP client, a great Instant Messenger, and the application to start with in my opinion.

imo.im

imo is a relatively unknown player on the Web IM scene, but is beginning to make some waves, and with good reason. My favorite things about this online instant messenger are within your buddy list, you can star buddies you talk to most, re-name and re-order buddy lists, search through your buddy list, and even upload pictures of your buddies to the imo interface.

There’s support for voice and video chat (fingers crossed for Skype soon), some great keyboard shortcuts, and a simple-to-use interface.

If their project list is any indication, there’s some spectacular stuff coming soon from this already-great client, so keep this one bookmarked.

KoolIM

KoolIM is the niche-IMr’s tool of choice. In addition to the standards (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, GTalk), it supports ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Xfire, Jabber, and more.  If you’re a user of a small network, KoolIM may be your best – or only – choice.

KoolIM offers two options for chat – an embedded client, available right from within the browser window, or a popup client, which looks and feels a bit more like a desktop application, acting outside of your browser (but still as a browser window).

You can log in to one account at a time, or all of them by creating a KoolIM account. KoolIM also claims fame as functioning behind a firewall, which some other applications can have trouble with.

KoolIM’s simple, not particularly feature-rich, but is uniquely network-friendly among IM clients.

eBuddy

eBuddy supports a huge number of IM services – MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, ICQ, MySpace, and promises Facebook is coming soon.

When you load eBuddy, it opens a new window for you to chat in. Your chats and contacts are tabbed, and there’s even a chat history for your recent conversations.

eBuddy offers a bunch of client versions, including great ones for your cell phone. Much like Meebo, you can also embed eBuddy directly into your own website. eBuddy’s feature list really explodes when you create a free “eBuddy ID,” which gives you tons of fun and useful features – faster login, more emoticons, saved settings, and access to other premium features.

All of these applications and others do the basics well – they send and receive messages, notify you of new ones, and generally remove the need for a desktop application. If all you want to do is chat, any of these five will do – pick the prettiest one.  Each one though, has a few unique features that make it the winner for specific people.

Try one or a few of these – which web-based client do you use for messaging?

Photo Credits: gonzalo_ar

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Well, we can’t exactly condone corporate espionage (We’ve had enough of that, thank you very much!). However if you are, as an example, a newly-elected U.S. President, named… I don’t know… Barack (I just pulled that out of nowhere, honest!), with secrets to keep just between you and a friend or sweetie (let’s call her…um…Michelle) over IM, you’re likely going to want some form of encryption between the two of you.

There are several ways to secure instant messaging, but here are the two absolute easiest ways. The first is web-based, because we just adore web-apps.

You will likely have heard by now of Meebo, the instant-messaging app that only requires your browser. It’s handy for when you’re on, say, your brother’s computer (as I am right now), and you need to get at your contact list. While your IM passwords are always sent through encrypted, secure means, accessing the site via the secure HTTPS protocol like so encrypts your messages as well, allowing for tighter security.

As an alternative to Meebo, I suggest Imo.IM, which supports MySpace IM and Skype, forces HTTPS, and is Firefox-sidebar-friendly.

For the easiest and tightest security possible for Barack and Michelle, we’ll need total encryption of all messages and file transfers, between the two chatters.

Time for a favorite download of ours, the Pidgin client. You need not do anything fancy yet; Just download, install, and then run the program, adding your IM accounts with the wizard. Your friend must do the same, and then you both must install the Pidgin-Encryption Plugin. Then enable the plugin from Pidgin’s Tools menu (you may need to restart Pidgin for the plugin to be available and show up in the list).

I’m sure that you’re in a hurry to get to your spy games, but relax, we’re almost done! Go ahead and hit Pidgin’s Buddies menu to start a new IM conversation with your friend. Here’s the most important part. You see this padlock icon at the top of your IM window? You both must click on this to enable the encryption.

Pidgin will handle the exchanging of encryption keys, making the secure connection, and other nerdy stuff. Messages sent via this method are fully encrypted from your end to the other, including when routed through your IM network. I call it “Really Simple Security.”

Presented above are just two ways to encrypt and secure your instant messaging chit-chat over just about any IM network. We’re always open to other options, so please feel free to post a comment and clue us in on your favorite encryption method.

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Presently, the feature only supports videos from Google Video or YouTube and it is available only in the Gmail version of Google Talk and not in the Google Talk desktop client.

The process, as all things Google, is simplicity itself – just drop the video URL into the chat window. A small thumbnail appears within the chat box with a preview and the loading button. Click the button and an inline video player opens up at the top of the chat box. So, a user can watch and discuss the video at the same time.

The previous way of doing things was to click on the received link and open it up in another window. Yes, we still do the same with most of the other chat services (Yahoo messenger 9 though does allow video sharing); Gmail now lets us continue chatting without browsing away to another page. That’s a time saver.

For the musically inclined like me, I use it to share some of the latest song bytes I find on the video sites. Also, one can upload home videos using a YouTube user account and then share it with a chat user. It makes for an entertaining chat session. Yes, the limitation of using video links from Google Videos and YouTube remains. Also, Google Video is on the wane according to some reports following Google’s acquisition of YouTube. But hopefully, as the feature catches on we might see more variety in the Google menu with other video sites being added.

Add this to the fact that Google has added voice and video chat to Gmail, this new arrow in its quiver is another user-friendly step forward.

Have you used this recent feature? Does it add or detract to the chat experience? Share your views with us in the comments area below.

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The Meebo Firefox Extension

The Meebo Firefox extension adds some nifty features to Meebo. Improvements include “toaster” style notifications, a sidebar to access your buddy list, and auto-login. Unfortunately, this extension requires the Meebo tab to still be present, meaning that your conversations don’t carry on in the sidebar, but the actual Meebo tab.

The main addition of the extension is the sidebar, which allows you to see your buddy list in that sidebar – with no need to switch tabs. However, when you want to IM someone, clicking their name in the sidebar will automatically switch your Firefox tab back to Meebo – where you can chat there. This means that you can’t browse and chat at the same time, which is often inconvenient.

The second main addition of the extension are the toaster-style notifications, which tells you about certain events (can be chosen in the options panel) without having to be focused on the Firefox window.

Meebo’s Mobile Interface As A Sidebar

The mobile interface – while sub par to the actual interface, is a convenient way of accessing Meebo from the Firefox sidebar.  It allows you to carry on conversations in the sidebar without switching tabs. However, the Firefox extension doesn’t work in tandem with this method – so you’re stuck between the Firefox addon that depends on the Meebo website interface, or the less than stellar meebo sidebar.

It displays recent messages from contacts (listed in order of recent messages), which you can click on to chat with, and also click back to the buddy list through an icon next to the input area. An apparent bug is the status picker, which makes it impossible to see the options without highlighting over them. Sound is absent.

To use this interface, create a Firefox bookmark for http://www.meebo.com/mobile/ and set it to load in the sidebar.

Greasemonkey Scripts

Change the Background Image

Meebo offers a selection of background images you can use (if you like product placements) through the preferences – appearance menu, but to use other images, you’ll need the customize meebo backgrounds Greasemonkey script. It allows you to choose a URL to grab a wallpaper from (sorry, no local options) and makes it the background for Meebo. Make sure you choose dark wallpaper (as link text appears in white for all themes) and the gray theme tends to look best with all images. (Note: I had to add http://www*.meebo.com/#* to the includes of the script to make it work).

Meebo Control Panel Script

This Greasemonkey script has a number of options that change Meebo features including hiding various elements of the page and adding the ability to sign on while invisible.

Unfortunately, it sticks an ugly blue link on top of the Meebo logo to access the “control panel” (presumably because it hasn’t been updated to keep up with Meebo’s design; the author states you can change line 91 of the script to reposition the link).

Do you use Meebo for IM? Maybe some other online instant messenger? If so, do you have any tips, tweaks, Greasemonkey scripts or any other hacks that you would like to share with the readers? Please share them in the comments!

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• How To Secure & Encrypt Your Instant Messaging Chats (19)
• Why I’m Digging Digsby (31)
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Think of a channel as an individual “room” on a larger IRC server, usually dedicated to a certain topic or organization. Your own mileage may vary. To create and access IRC, you’ll need an IRC client like any on this list. I’ll be using the ChatZilla extension for Firefox.

If you’re new, I suggest reading IRC Help before jumping in.

You’ll notice that ChatZilla presents you upon startup with links to some popular networks. For the purposes of this demonstration, I connected to Freenode, however due to its policies against off-topic channels, I suggest using the Foonetic server instead. Just type “/server irc.foonetic.net” to connect to it.

Chances are, your initial username will be taken and you’ll be given something like “Tim____”. You can change your nickname with the command “/nick NickName” (no quotes). If you plan on using your channel often, you may wish to reserve your chosen nickname with a password. You can do this with a command in the format “/msg nickserv register password email@address“. When you return to the server later, you may login with “/msg nickserv identify password“.

Now that you’ve got your nickname registered, it’s time to create your channel. This can be done with the command “/join channelname“. The channel name can be any old nonsense. Try to make sure that your channel name is unique so that you don’t drop into another channel unannounced.

Once you’re in your channel, you have the option to register the channel, in order to maintain operator “(op)” status in the channel. To do so, your command is “/msg chanserv REGISTER #channelname password description“, replacing words when appropriate.

I’ve created a channel for #MakeUseOf on the Foonetic server, and anyone is welcome to drop in and say hi. Have fun with the old-school chit-chat!

Do you have a favorite IRC client or server to suggest? Let us know in the comments.

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The Google Talk chatback badge allows people visiting your webpages to chat with you with what is essentially a specialized version of the Google Talk gadget. The chatback badge will display your Google Talk online status, along with a customizable message, and a link to open a chat window with you. You can opt to use a nickname in the chat, if you wish to remain anonymous or pseudonymous.

You can also create different badges if you wish. This can be useful if you have multiple personalities as many bloggers and webmasters do. When someone clicks the link in the badge, you will receive a message from chatback@talk.google.com with a URL to chat to the guest. When you click the link, the chat begins! The guest doesn’t even need a Google Account to chat with you!

Setting up your Google Talk chatback badge is easy:

1. Go to the Create a Google Talk chatback badge page (log into your Google Account if prompted).
2. Click the Edit dropdown and change the badge to your liking.
3. Click the Update badge button.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the badge looks the way you would like it to look.
5. Copy the code in the text area at the bottom of the screen and paste it into your webpage(s).

If you are putting the badge into a narrow column on your webpage, you may find that 200px is too wide. If this is the case, you’ll need to update the code by changing the value 200 to the desired width. There are two places in the code where you’ll need to provide the new width. See the highlighted sections in the screenshot below.

Do you primarily still use Google Talk? What do you think of the Google Talk chatback badge?

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• Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified (23)
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So prepare to be surprised by Scrapboy, a desktop client for some of the popular social networks like Facebook, Orkut, and MySpace.

Common sense says that ’social networking’ is synonymous with the web. But a little jiggling of the senses and a desktop app does have a certain appeal.

The first benefit that comes to mind is that Scrapboy helps to provide a common interface to handle multiple sites. No more logging in individually.

I downloaded and configured Scrapboy for my Facebook and Orkut accounts (I don’t have a presence in MySpace).  I then dug in and took a closer look at whether Scrapboy is worth a shout.

Logging into Facebook

I must say I really liked the interface – clean cut and cute. The log-in is straight through with the respective social accounts. For instance, as soon as I logged into my Facebook account, the social network asked for my permission to let Scrapboy access my data. With a yes, a small floating slideshow featured the profile pics of my circle of friends.

From the Scrapboy chat box, you can see your wall posts, check your inbox, view your pokes, events and check out your groups. Checking the inbox and your groups though involves logging into Facebook through the browser.

Now I could use this single window to access my circle of friends simultaneously. Chatting with Jane, spying on John’s wall posts and looking at Jim’s tagged photos – all at the same time!

Scrapboy not only transforms social networking into a chat box-like environment, but also takes it a bit further…

• Instant notifications when friends sign-in or when they send a message or receive news.

• Go offline into a stealth state.

• Use Facebook emoticons to add ‘emotion’ to your messages.

• See what you were gabbing about with saved history.

• Be peer to peer and exchange files with friends who have their own Scrapboy installed.

• Setting personal preferences for the notifications (pokes, group invites, new photos etc) thus allowing for selective control.

• Instant check of their profile and current status.

• A tiny checkmark in the chat window also reminds friends that the user is typing and hasn’t fallen asleep on the keyboard.

• View photos in a slideshow.

• Also view wall posts, including the deleted ones on your friends’ walls.

• Scrapboy serves you reminders about a particular event. Get reminded when you want with the option of a time function. Facebook events are automatically stored in an event viewer.

• Behind a proxy server? Configure it to work seamlessly with the settings in the options tab.

Logging into Google Orkut…

Scrapboy’s other face is its sync with Google Orkut. The interface shows your own and your friends’ scraps. The interface allows you to format and post your scraps, although it does not allow you to delete any offending scraps you might receive or send. Through the interface you can subscribe to the friend updates you want thus filtering the alerts you receive. You can also view your pals – by who is online, who visited you recently or who has an upcoming birthday, etc. Scrapboy allows you to open multiple windows for your friends and view their scraps and photos at the same time.

Scrapboy has its own take on privacy (or lack of it for your friends). You get notified whenever someone deletes a scrap or a photo…and more, you can see it too.

An end critique

Here is where I noticed a flaw in the program. If I logged in directly into Facebook and/or Orkut, instead of using Scrapboy and deleted my scraps or checked my events, Scrapboy did not reflect those updates and deletions.  An inability to update my status message also was a bit irksome.

But…the final note

Scrapboy did a good job of bringing all my fairly large collection of friends from two social networks into a single window. It also saved me the bother of manually logging into their ‘online’ lives through its frequent alerts. If I have to pick one standout feature over all the others, it would have to be the chat-styled interface.

Call Scrapboy a marriage of instant messaging to scrapping and of course, poking.

Scrapboy is a 7.6 MB download compatible with versions of Windows.

Have you tried Scrapboy for yourself? Let us know what you think with a scrap in the comments.

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Here’s what I’m covering :

• Jerry Yang steps down from Yahoo!
• Barack Obama to give up the Crackberry
• Poll: Best Google search operators and tips
• Google voice and video chat
• Google iPhone App.

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To recap, Digsby is a messaging application which lets you talk to people on all of the major instant messaging networks such as MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, Gtalk and even Facebook Chat. More than that it also lets you connect up email accounts and social networks accounts including Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also supports customization, skinning and even synchronizes your account details and Digsby skins between computers.

Steve Shapiro is the project manager for Digsby and he took the time to answer a few questions concerning this project:

Tell us about the ‘Digsby’ logo/mascot…

We wanted something that was a mascot and not just a logo so that it would “be Digsby” – we felt this would be a good way to brand it as a consumer friendly product. Another important aspect of it was that it needed to look good as a 16×16 or 32×32 icon since it is used on the desktop and in the tray.

How many people do you have working on this project? Is this purely a hobby project or do you hope eventually Digsby will provide some kind of revenue stream?

Digsby is developed by a company so we do need to pay the rent and keep the lights on.

What about this project aren’t you currently happy with? Is any part of the application frustrating you feature-wise?

We would love to finish stabilizing the Windows build so we can release for Mac and Linux!  We’ve had tons of requests.

What Instant Messaging application did you use before Digsby?

I used AIM 5.9 + Gtalk.

What is your personal favourite feature?

The email integration.  It’s nice not to have to keep checking my inbox through out the day.  If I get an email that’s important I can open it right from there.   If it’s spam, I can mark it appropriately without ever going to my inbox.

I’m interested to hear your comments on the whole ‘perpetual beta’ a lot of companies have going on these days. Are you working towards an actual version 1.0 release, or is Digsby going to do a Google for the next few years?

It’s a little more complex than that.  There will never really be a 1.0 or a 2.0 but it will also not stay in beta for years.  We adopted a development cycle that is more typical of a website than a software product. A software product typically releases version 1.0 and then there is a massive effort to release 2.0. You need to then convince people to start using 2.0 because it is better while also providing support for 1.0.

With a website, every time you visit the site you see the newest version.  Digsby auto-updates each time you run it so you are always running the latest release. We release new versions almost every week.  Check out http://changelog.digsby.com.  Once it is a bit more stable we will remove the alpha or beta tag that we put at the end of each release but the fast release cycle will remain unchanged so there won’t be a version 1.0 and version 2.0…..just constant builds that keep making Digsby better and better.

Any hints you’d like to share about something big which is yet to come?

Mac + Linux releases!

What do you think of Digsby becoming the ‘Firefox’ of instant-messaging applications?

We have seen that tag line in many reviews and are honored by it.  Firefox is a great browser and being put on the same level makes us smile and encourages us to push even harder to improve Digsby.

Do you have any opinions you would care to share on the latest Windows Live Messenger?

It’s a great IM client in my opinion.

So thanks to Steve.

If you haven’t tried Digsby out yet then I would very much recommend it!

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However, some of you will NOT see it yet as Gmail is doing their usual and rolling it out slowly to users.   So some of you will have it and some of you won’t.   So if you don’t have it yet, don’t despair.   You will see it eventually!

This new feature is a really big deal because along with also being able to put Google gadgets in the Gmail sidebar, this means that your Gmail inbox is no longer just for email.   Your Gmail inbox is now the center of your entire working life.  I hesitate to use the phrase “nerve center” as it is over-used and a bit of a cliche but that is basically what it has now become.   Everything you need to work with is now sitting on your Gmail page :

• Your email
• The Google Calendar gadget (enabled from the Gmail Labs section)
• The Google Docs gadget (enabled from the Gmail Labs section)
• Any other gadgets you may have installed.
• Remember The Milk “to do list” gadget or the Firefox extension.
• And now….video and voice chat!

You need to install a small plug-in which Google provides but right there, you see the first drawback. If you are working on different computers, you need to have the plugin installed on ALL of the computers for the video and voice chat to work. So if you are say in an internet cafe or on a computer where you don’t have the administrator rights then you won’t be able to use the video and voice features. Any feature that requires something installed is always going to have limited appeal and limited use.

You are also obviously going to need a webcam. Google “helpfully” gives you some suggestions (obviously they’ll get their commission if you follow their ideas!)

Once you have the plug-in installed and you’ve plugged in the webcam, go to your Gmail settings, then the “chat” tab. You’ll now see a new section:

Make sure that the settings are correct and that your webcam is showing up.

If you now look at your GTalk inside Gmail, you’ll now see yourself with a little camera icon next to your name:

If anyone sees that camera icon, they’ll know that you are able to speak to them via webcam inside Gmail’s GTalk and if you see cameras next to their name, you’ll know they can do the same.

Finally, here is Gmail’s official little YouTube video on the subject :

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• Watch YouTube Or Google Videos Inside Gmail Chat (1)
• Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified (23)
• How To Add Google Talk to Your Webpages (14)
• Addons to Make Google Talk Better (25)
• 6 must-know Apps to make FREE Group Conference Calls (10)

Imified basically allows you to connect with online services using your chat program. Whether you are a user of Google Talk, AIM, Windows Live or Jabber, information from these online services is securely passed back and forth, allowing you to do everything from your desktop. This can be anything from updating your Twitter stream to checking an IP address. One thing is for certain. Imified is going to be the most valuable friend on your IM contact list.

So the first step to setting up Imified is to get the bot onto your contact list. This is extremely simple. All you have to do is pick your chat service, take the associated email address and add it to your contact list :

AIM: IMified

MSN (Windows Live Messenger) : imified@imified.com

Google Talk: imified@imified.com

Jabber: imified@imified.com

Once it is on your contact list, send the Imified bot a message to wake it up. It should then be approved and brought online either right away or after a short period.

The first thing you will get is an activation link to the Imified website and a very small menu, one of which will say “My Account”. Ignore that for the moment. First, click on the activation link as this will activate your account and get you into the Imified website.

Once you are in, you will see 3 pages of widgets which you can add to your IM client :

All you need to do is just go through the lists, choose the ones you want and add them to your IM client.

How do you add them? It’s very easy. See those green plus signs in the top left hand corner of each widget? Just click on the green plus sign for the widget you want to install. That opens it up. You’ll be asked to give it a preferred name and depending on the app, you may also be asked for a username and password. Then click “enter” and suddenly your IM program will update!

It’s a bit hard to explain here. It’s one of those things where it’s easier if you just do it.

OK now this is basically what my Imified menu looks like on Google Talk. I’m sure I’ll add more later but right now, I’ve confined myself to these five apps.

If at any time I want to access my Imified account, all I have to do is hit “6″ and Imified will create an unique URL for me to get into the website.

Let’s take a look at some of the things on my menu to demonstrate how useful Imified is :

NetLookup :

By using certain commands, you can find out all kinds of information about a domain.

ping ********.com – Pings the given hostname five times and outputs results.
traceroute ********.com – Outputs a traceroute (orig. in Munich, Germany) to the given domain.
alexa *******.com – Prints Alexa info about the given domain name.
whois ********.com – Looks up information about the domain name in the WHOIS database.
enum +1-604-958-1212 – Looks up ENUM entries for a phone number at multiple ENUM registries.

Post to Delicious

We all know about Delicious, the bookmarking site. Well, using Imified, you can send bookmarks straight to Delicious. You can even add descriptions and tags.   There’s a slight delay before the bookmark gets added to your profile though so don’t expect an instantaneous addition. But it DOES work!

Post to Twitter / Jaiku

I’ll lump these two together since Twitter and Jaiku are essentially both microblogging services and do the same thing.

No delay with this one! My Twitter feed is updated instantly!

There are LOTS of widgets you can add to your Imified bot which can help you do things faster.   Which ones do you like?

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• Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting (17)
• 5 Reasons Digsby’s A Must-Have IM Client (30)
• 5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends (16)
• 3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away (14)
• 15 Addons to Enhance your Instant Messenger (16)

One app I like in particular is called Palringo (iTunes Link). The major difference between Palringo and other IM clients for the iPhone is that it is a multi-protocol client. That means you cannot only use your AIM account, but also your Yahoo!, Windows Live, and Google Talk accounts (and more, seen on the right). Palringo isn’t the only multi-protocol client, but compared to the other few I have seen thus far, it is definitely the most refined.

Another great feature is the interface. While Palringo is a multi-platform client (meaning it can run on multiple types of machines), this review will only cover the iPhone’s specific interface. To be brief: it’s great! It is not a simple “port” or recreation of the original interface (though it is somewhat similar). Instead, it was designed with the device in mind.

At the top of the screen there are three central buttons that let you switch between your accounts, your chat groups, and your contacts. The “accounts” pane is where account configuration takes place. The “chat groups” pane allows you to create chat rooms where multiple users can interact. The last pane, the “contacts” pane, is the most important. It lists all the people from your various buddy lists on one unified list. Unfortunately there are no “groups” like in other chat clients. Available users are listed at the top and offline users are shown below. There is a handy search box at the top to prevent massive scrolling, though.

Clicking any contact, as expected, brings up a new chat window. In the chat pane there are several options. The first is a simple chat window that brings up the keyboard. One critique here is that the text is very small and makes typing pretty difficult. The other options include sending an image, adding the other user as a contact, or sending a voice message.

The last option is one of the coolest things about Palringo. If you click the word-bubble icon, the App brings up a bar for you to hold down with your finger. While you’re holding it down, the iPhone’s mic turns on and records a short message. After you let go, it will immediately stop recording and send your message. In Palringo, the message shows as a “play” button, but your friend will likely see a link. After testing it a number of times, I can say that this feature works well, but sometimes it can cut off the last bit of your sentence unexpectedly.

Another neat feature is the ability to move in 4 directions through the interface. When scanning your buddy list, a standard up or down flick will scroll through it. If you have multiple chat windows open, though, flicking left or right (like in the iPhone’s picture viewer) will change from one chat window to another. It takes some getting used to because the difference between the motions is very slight for the first centimeter or so. Once you understand how Palringo responds, though, the convenience of the left-right flick more than makes up for any accidental scrolling.

There are more features in Palringo, but hopefully you get the gist of the app. It has some of the limitations inherent to all 3rd party apps. For instance, because the iPhone won’t run background processes, going to the home screen closes Palringo and signs you off. There is no logging feature (which I believe is possible under the iPhone SDK) so any chats you had before closing the app are lost. Even so, the client passes all of my general benchmarks for a good IM client and I will definitely use this one for any of my messaging needs.

[rating=3]

What are some of your favorite iPhone IM clients? Does this one do it for you or is there something else out there that’s better?

(By) Jimmy Rogers is a biology major at George Mason University and an avid freelance tech blogger. Check out his blog, Mason Tech Beat.

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• Why I’m Digging Digsby (31)
• Pimp Your Digsby With Skins And Emoticons (14)
• Pidgin – Tips and Tricks (23)
• 3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away (14)
• 15 Addons to Enhance your Instant Messenger (16)

So what else can you do? You could use an online IM client, like imo, eBuddy or meebo. By using one of these three websites, you can chat with your buddies without installing a single thing.

You may also want to check out Karl’s AIM Express article which also lets you chat via the web using AIM.

imo.im

imo.im is still in alpha phase, so it’s still a little bit behind on eBuddy and meebo. There is potential though. It looks pretty basic, stripped down, with nearly no images used, but that’s brought into perspective with a pretty neat interface. imo.im turns your browser into a little desktop, giving you the ability to open multiple chat windows and to drag and position them across the screen.

Through imo.im, you can connect to your MSN, Yahoo, AIM/ICQ and/or Google Talk account(s). Please notice the ‘and’ and the ‘(s)’, because you can connect to multiple accounts at the same time.

Imo.im also features ‘surf left’ and ‘surf right’ buttons. When you click this, a small new window is opened, containing your chat client. imo.im automatically adjusts the size and position of both your main and chat window, so they seamlessly fit besides each other. This enables you to chat on the right (or left) side, while continuing to surf on the left (or right) side of your screen.

Pros:

• Windowed interface
• Surf left/right buttons
• Webcam functionality
• Multiple account functionality

Cons:

• Very basic interface (chat completely text-based; no smileys)

Available networks:

• MSN, Yahoo, AIM/ICQ, Google Talk

eBuddy.com

eBuddy is much more detailed than imo.im. First of all: the interface. Though it lacks a windowed interface like imo.im, it’s highly graphical. It substitutes the use of windows by using tabs. Though this is very practical as well, it takes away the ability to multitask, or multi-chat, as some might say. Besides this, eBuddy brings many advantages, giving you the ability to choose user-pictures, personal messages, and much, much more (you can even send buzzers, when using the MSN Messenger network).

Just like imo.im, eBuddy supports the use of multiple IM-accounts simultaneously. The only downside is that you’ll have to register for an ‘eBuddy ID’. The connected pro is that you won’t have to add all your accounts every time you go online, as with imo.im.

Pros:

• Graphic interface
• Customizability
• Multiple account functionality

Cons:

• Lack of webcam functionality

Available networks:

MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk, MySpace IM

meebo.com

meebo seems to combine the pros of both imo.im and eBuddy into one site. It uses a similar windowed interface as imo.im, but less stripped down. meebo owns a pretty sleek interface, which visually resembles Linux. It isn’t as graphical as eBuddy, but makes it up with some extra functions.

meebo gives you the ability to use the webcam, using a very easy to use interface. When you sign up for a meebo account, you also get multiple account functionality and other meebo customizations. This includes the ability to choose between different color schemes and the keeping of chat logs.

Pros:

• Graphic interface
• Chat logs
• Multiple account functionality
• Webcam functionality

Cons:

• Some graphical aspects are still missing

Available networks:

MSN, Yahoo, AIM/ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber

Which web-based IM network do you swear by and why?

(By) Simon is a student from Belgium who wastes his time relaxing, watching anime and surfing the net. He would tell you to check out his blog, only he doesn’t have one yet!

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• Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified (23)
• Get RSS feed updates in your IM program with ZapTXT (2)
• 5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends (16)
• 5 Cool Windows Mobile Apps To Have On Your Phone (29)
• 15 Addons to Enhance your Instant Messenger (16)

I say “more or less” because there are a few start up flaws. When you first install it, it doesn’t import all of your Facebook contacts right away. In fact when I installed the plug-in for the first time, NOTHING HAPPENED!! It was only a hour later that the Facebook contacts slowly began to appear in my contact list and even then it was only a few at a time. I have about 25 people in my Facebook friends list and only 12 are appearing right now in my Pidgin contact list several days later. Why the others are not showing up, I don’t know.

Maybe they (the contacts) have disabled Facebook Chat on their end – Facebook users do have the ability to opt out of the chat feature – or maybe they have to log into Facebook Chat for the first time before the plugin detects them? I don’t know. Either way, not everyone is there on Pidgin yet. But the people that ARE there can talk to me fine and I can talk to them. So the plugin works perfectly in that regard. So I feel I can recommend it to you and say it’s a plugin worth using and a plugin worth watching for the future. It’s clearly still a work in progress so I am confident that any existing bugs will soon be cleared up.

One of the Facebook plugin features that I really like is the ability to update your Facebook profile from inside Pidgin. When you go to the account management section of Pidgin, you will see a “Set Facebook Status” option and when you enter a status, this will automatically send that status to your account on the Facebook site.

The pros of using the plugin are obvious – all of your contacts are in the one place on Pidgin. There’s one less reason to log into Facebook and this in turn saves you time and makes you more productive. Pidgin also logs your conversations as text files which is useful if you want records of your conversations kept.

The cons of the service? Hmmmm…..you don’t get poked by using Pidgin? I guess if you like that sort of thing, using this plugin would be a bit of a bummer for you.

The developer, Eion Robb, has also made a Skype plugin for Pidgin, which I have also tried out and used for quite some time. I highly recommend it as well if you want to move all your Skype contacts onto Pidgin as well.

(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger, professional freelance writer and the editor of Make Use Of. He drinks countless cups of tea a day, checks out countless websites a day – and does not like to be poked up the you-know-where on Facebook. Check out his personal blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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• How To Power up your Skype (16)
• [Quick Tip] Stop Pidgin Spam in Its Tracks with Bot Sentry (26)
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• Pidgin – Tips and Tricks (23)

I know I have been! Your friendly neighborhood Admin has been on location where I did not have administrative access to the computer (imagine that!) nor could I plug in my laptop into their network and do what I needed to do. There have even been times I could not get a cell phone signal or anything on my WWAN card. Some places are actually secure and lock down everything. AOL has an option to forward your IM’s to your cell phone via SMS but without cell service this wouldn’t work either!

Security is one thing but limiting functionality is another. So there are ways around the limitations if you can freely browse the web. Let’s get you back to chatting cybering dumb quick.

I use AIM Express from AOL. If a computer has internet access, chances are you can run one of these lightweight in browser clients. To add some icing to the cake they have just released their newest beta version of AIM Express.

It runs on Adobe’s Flash now and is a lot smoother than previous versions. The client is compatible with Windows and Mac (I’m sure a resourceful young go-getter like yourself could MAKE it work on Linux!) Make sure your system meets these requirements. If it does not, don’t fret we have another option for you. Keep on reading!

System Requirements

Windows

• Windows 2000/NT/XP/Vista
• Flash player 9
• Javascript enabled browser
• Recommended browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0, Firefox 1.5 and higher, Safari 3.0

Mac OS X

• Flash player 9
• Javascript enabled browser
• Recommended browsers: Firefox 1.5 and higher, Safari 3.0

On a regular basis I use Digsby for my cross platform IM’ing needs but when I can’t use Digsby I run this flash based chat. It is really easy to use and as always it is free. All you need to do is browse on over to here and launch it. As long as you have flash installed on the machine you are good to go!

But just like I stated above there are ways to get this to work on a machine without Flash. In this situation you need an older version of AIM Express. The previous version is still available and will run on older setups or more locked down environments.

As you can see there are no system requirements and the Browser requirements are pretty easy to match on most systems.

Browser Requirements

To use the AIM Express service, be sure that your computer is running one of the following Web browsers:

• Internet Explorer 5.5 or later
• Firefox 1.0 and later
• Mozilla 1.4 or later
• Netscape 7.1 and later

Note: Web browsers must allow pop-ups from AIM.com in order for AIM Express to run properly.

If your system does not meet the requirements, you can still access an older version of AIM Express.

(By): Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at askTheAdmin.com today.

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• Smarterchild as Your Virtual Personal Assistant (21)
• Integrate Facebook Chat Into Pidgin Instant Messenger (3)
• Get RSS feed updates in your IM program with ZapTXT (2)
• 5 Online Instant Messaging Services to Chat with Friends (16)
• 3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away (14)

In your comments a few were from people who had tried Digsby a while ago and found it too buggy to be a serious alternative to their current chat client. Despite being less then a year old, it came third in our poll about favorite Instant Messaging client. I can now confidently say that after the number of recent updates, Digsby is at a point where I can now confidently say it should be perfectly safe to download and try. Errors, CPU spikes and especially RAM usage have been considerably optimized over the last few weeks.

If, like Keith , you’ve been using another application for some time and have all your chats logged then it may be a bit of a deterrent when deciding to switch to Digsby. This is no longer a concern. Chris, one of the Digsby developers, dropped in and left a comment saying that you could now convert all your old log files with the Digsby log converter. I recommend this handy tool.

A few days ago on his own blog fellow Make Use Of writer Shankar linked to Digsbies Themes , a new and growing resource for Digsby skins and tools. Although at this point there isn’t a huge number to choose from, I’ve made a selection of what I think are the best three skins available.

To install a new skin:

Installing these skins is pretty simple. After downloading the folder, you’ll have to unzip it into your Digsby folders. It’s likely Digsby will be in a path similar to these:

C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Application Data\Digsby\Skins\

C:\Program Files\Digsby\res\Skins\

Choose either your user folder or the program folder. You will need to reveal hidden files if you want to find Digsby in your application data. If you install the skin in the program files, you will find future Digsby updates will erase the data, so it’s preferable to install it in the user data. Once you have done this you can activate skins by opening Digsby and going to Tools > Preferences > Skins > and selecting your theme.

Top 3 Digsby Skins

This skin is “an extensive make-over which makes Digsby look like Windows Live Messenger for those who like the look of Live messenger or just like the clean modern style which is popular these days.based upon the Windows Live is a very nice theme which borrows the Windows Live look.”

This is my favourite and in my opinion is currently the best Digsby theme. You can get it here.

AeRoyale

XP Royale is a theme that didn’t make into the original XP release but was made available for download a couple of years later. Long Zheng managed to find an alternative black version which he released unofficially on his blog .

AeRoyale is a very nice Digsby theme which combines elements of the XP Royale theme and Vista Aero. A good combination of the two and designed to fit well into both desktops.

OSX Leopard

This theme is a fairly good attempt at designing a Digsby theme to mimic the look and feel of MacOSX. . Digsby is available for download on both PC and Mac, so if you’re already using MacOSX this may be perfect for getting Digsby to fit in nicely with the rest of your desktop. Get it here

Emoticons

One other thing that may annoy you about using Digsby is having to use a new set of emoticons. Luckily Digsbies.org has all the smileys for the main chat networks. You can download and install these in much the same way as the skins, just look for Digsby\res\emoticons\ in your files.

In the emoticons folder rename “default” to something like “default-backup”. Copy the emoticons folder (example: MSNemoticons) in your downloaded zip file to C:\Program Files\Digsby\res\emoticons\ so that you have e.g. C:\Program Files\Digsby\res\emoticons\MSNEMOTICONS\angel.gif. Rename it to “default” and open up Digsby.

Here are a some of the most well known smiley packs:

A useful tip for using Digsby is that you can use keypad shortcuts to rapidly control some of the features and dismiss the notifications window with a right click. I find that one particularity useful as although I like having notifications, sometimes they pop up at the wrong time and annoy me.

Lastly, if I still haven’t persuaded you to give Digsby a go then why don’t you check out this this Make Use Of list of the best alternative multi-messaging applications around.

Laurence John feels over his head on the internet, too many people, too much to learn… however he tries his best and even has a new blog over at ShippingSeven.com where he is chronicling the ongoing development of Windows 7.

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• Why I’m Digging Digsby (31)
• Pidgin – Tips and Tricks (23)
• MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Palringo Instant Messenger (9)
• 3 Web-Based IM Clients For Chatting The Night Away (14)
• 15 Addons to Enhance your Instant Messenger (16)

This time we want to ask you about instant messaging programs. What is your IM client of choice ? Do you use a multi-protocol client that supports multiple accounts (i.e Pidgin) or prefer to stick with a single-network chat client like MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger etc. Let us know below. You can select up to 2 clients.

Download Links

• Adium
• Digsby *
• GTalk (Google Talk)
• ICQ
• Kopete
• Miranda
• MSN / Windows Live Messenger
• Pidgin
• Skype
• Trillian
• Yahoo Messenger

* The newest IM client out there and received lots of positive coverage recently.

While we are talking about Instant messaging cleints, here are some earlier MakeUseOf articles you might be also interested in:

• Addons to Make Google Talk Better
• 6 Alternative Chat Applications for MSN on Mac OS X
• Pidgin Tips and Tricks
• 15 Addons to Enhance your Instant Messenger
• Instant Messaging clients for your mobile phone.

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• Why I’m Digging Digsby (31)
• Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified (23)
• Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting (17)
• Smarterchild as Your Virtual Personal Assistant (21)
• Send & Track Group Messages & Conduct Polls With Notifu (4)

You can grab XFire here and quickly install it. Once installed, XFire will automatically detect all of the games on your computer and prompt you to enter any of your friends’ emails, names or XFire names. This makes it extremely easy to get started.

XFire supports a massive amount of games from popular games like Counter-Strike to small time wasters like Zuma Deluxe. If you want to look at the exhaustive list, you can find it here.

Once some friends are added, you will be able to see exactly what games they are playing and where they are playing them. This is where XFire shines. You don’t just get to see your friends playing, but you can actually join them in the game and in voice chat by just clicking on the “join” button.

Sidebar

The sidebar is set on the friends view by default, but there is much more to the sidebar than meets the eye. The sidebar also includes Chat Rooms, Servers, Files, Screenshots, and Videos.

Chat Rooms

This isn’t a widely used feature, but it does exactly what you think it does. It allows you to make a chat room for all your friends or your team to discuss all of your awesome screenshots and videos.

Servers

This tab will replace all of your in game server browsers, as it allows you to see all of the servers in which you have played recently. It also gives you the option to add them to your favorites, so you can join them later. Not having to boot up Counter-Strike only to find out all of your favorite servers are full is such a great feeling.

Files

In this area, you can download the latest patches, demos, trailers and movies. You are able to see the newest and most popular downloads. You can also search for a video you are looking for, but this will take you to the XFire website where you can better refine your search.

Screenshots

XFire has the ability to take and manage all of your screenshots. This is a great feature for anyone that competes or likes to take lots of screenshots of their amazing scores. XFire gives you the ability to customize the screenshot hotkey, and it conveniently saves all of your screenshots within your XFire folder.

Videos

This offers much of the same options as the screenshots tab except for video. You are able to record in game demos using a customizable hotkey for that highlight reel you want to put together some day.

Social Side of Things

On top of a great PC gaming messaging client, you also have a nice social network built in. XFire will automatically build you a basic profile, but you must go online to fill out the rest of the information and customize its appearance.

Your profile page allows you to upload the screenshots and videos you’ve taken. It also keeps track of the amount of time you’ve been playing each game, and it is the process of tracking and displaying some of your in-game statistics.

This way you can show off your high scores to your friends, and show them just how long it took you to do it.

Do you know of any good XFire equivalents that you would recommend?

(By) Kyle Judkins is a part-time freelance writer and tech blogger. He is the author of Lost In Technology where he talks about technology tips and tricks that everyone can use.

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• Why I’m Digging Digsby (31)
• Turn Your IM Program Into A Productivity Tool Using Imified (23)
• Translation For MSN: Auto Translates Messages While Chatting (17)
• Smarterchild as Your Virtual Personal Assistant (21)
• Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) with WINE (15)

Once you’ve downloaded ooVoo you’ll be asked to create an account if you don’t already have one. You’ll be required to enter a ooVoo ID, a password for your account and your email. When you click the next button you can enter a display name and a picture. Then when you click next again you’ll be asked to enter some personal information but this is optional so you can just click finish. When you click finish you will then be logged in to ooVoo and see a welcome window telling you about the features that ooVoo has to offer.

Features

• Video Call
• Video Message
• Find Friends
• Record Video Call
• Video Effects
• Chat
• Send Files
• Sidebar View
• ooVoo Link
• Privacy

ooVoo has quite a few nice features that makes it different to any other messaging client I have came across. A nice feature that I like about ooVoo that (as far as I know) no other messaging client has is that you are able to record video voicemail messages. So if someone is offline and you need to tell them something, instead of sending an email, send a video message and give your fingers a rest.

You’re also able to record video calls so this can come in useful if you have a meeting over ooVoo and you need to check back on something later that was said that you may have missed or you need to clarify.

If you want to find out if any of your friends are using ooVoo you can simply do this by clicking “import contacts”. You will then have a choice of 8 services to check if your friends are using. The 8 services are AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, IcqMail, mac.com, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Mail.com. If your friends aren’t using ooVoo you can either send them an email from ooVoo or send a video message asking them to sign up and add you.

If you’re using the Windows version of ooVoo you will be able to do video effects with your friend when in a video call. This feature is not available for Mac OS X so you won’t be able to do it unless you install Windows on Bootcamp, Parallels or VMware.

Just like every messaging client, ooVoo will let you message and talk to your friends with text. Up to six people can join a conversation and you can send messages to offline contacts and they will receive the message when they next log in to ooVoo.

With ooVoo you can also send files to your contacts and friends and can send up to twenty files to as many contacts as you want at any time. A really nice feature is that you are able to send files to contacts who are offline and they will receive them the next time they log on.

Another cool feature that I like about ooVoo is the Sidebar View. If you’re working on many files and ooVoo is getting in the way you can switch to Sidebar View and it will put ooVoo to the right of your screen so that it is out of the way but you can still see your friends and contacts if you’re in a video call.

If you want people to see if you’re online on ooVoo and available, you can add an ooVoo link to your blog, website or email signature. If someone views your ooVoo link and sees your online status, they will be able to call you and chat to you instantly. Within the privacy settings you are able to set who can see your ooVoo status.

Within the privacy options in ooVoo you can also set whether everyone can see your picture or just your contacts, if video calls start automatically and who can contact and call you.

Do you use ooVoo? Or do you have another preferred VOIP application?

(By) Wez is a student studying computers, also does programming and video tutorials and writes about technology, software and websites, check out his blog @ www.TheTutorialBlog.com

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• Send several GBs of data to Friends using Podmailing (15)
• Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) with WINE (15)
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If you want instant message aggregation, there are a number of applications. You could try Trillian, Pidgin or any number of other lightweight multi-messaging applications. Or you could check out Digsby and for me there is no choice.

I have been using Digsby since it was in early beta, and it has rapidly became a favourite of mine. Digsby is a messaging application that integrates instant messaging with easy access to your email and social networks:

Here are some of the best features of Digsby in my opinion:

Customisation

The Digsby team encourages people to customize the application how they wish. This includes skins, themes, layout, notifications and conversations.

Most elements can be modified in some way. This includes status
(the coloured dots), messaging network logos, buddy avatars and names.

If you are using a number of major messaging networks then you have the options to control what information to be displayed to contacts on each, such as an “away” status for MSN contacts and a status showing ‘available’ for Google Talk.

Messaging + Email + Social Networks

The biggest problem with bringing social networks to the desktop is often the hugely disruptive notifications you constantly receive (ahem… Twitter).

Out of the applications I have tried, Digsby has maybe the least disruptive way of providing notifications. If you would prefer no pop-up notifications at all, you can choose to have them displayed down on your task bar which is pretty handy.

Conversations are logged and archived if you choose. If you need to find something later you can search for text or browse dates.

A contact on two of your networks can become one merged contact, and re-named if you wish, so you no longer have to put up with people changing their display names every 2 minutes.

Digsby can also be synchronized between installations so any preferences and themes are not lost.

Digsby is still in beta, and not the trendy Web 2.0 beta. You may notice occasional dropouts and bugs, but updates are frequent – sometimes as often as once a week, and performance has been steadily improving with time. Well worth having a look at.

Are you using Digsby for instant messaging or have you used it? What do you think of it? Is it a worthy contender to Trillian and Pidgin? What do you like and hate about it? What features do you like the best? Tell us in the comments!

(By) Laurence John finds himself way over his head on the Internet. Too many places, too much people. But that’s okay, being a Uni student he already has too much time on his hands. He is going to write on his blog Not Waving But Drowning … as soon as he stops fiddling with WordPress templates and plugins and gets on with it!

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Multi Protocol Instant Messengers

Not add-ons, really, but these multi-protocol IMs help a lot in connecting to people from various networks – you need not necessarily have to install every other Instant Messaging software around. Give them a go!

Pidgin – Probably the most popular multi protocol Instant Messaging client out there, supporting a wide number of platforms, including Skype. There a number of enhancements you could add to it, read our Pidgin Tips or go to Lifehacker’s article on how to customize it.

Digsby – New on the block, but doing really well. Connect to multiple messaging networks, receive emails, and even associate your Facebook account and get notifications about your Facebook contacts. You can email directly from the chat window without opening your browser. See the above screenshot.

Trillian Basic – The most professional multiprotocol instant messenger, has a very skinnable user interface.

AIRTalkr – Built on the Adobe AIR Platform, this is a primitive software (a bit buggy), but nevertheless, it looks very cool and you can easily keep track of what your friends are up to in a variety of social networking sites, including Flickr, MySpace, etc.

Check out some more alternatives, including chat clients for mobile phones at previously posted Multi-protocol instant messengers.

Addons that Work with most Instant Messengers

HyperIM – If you’re online simultaneously in many clients, this one is for you. This brilliant status manager and changer can work along with Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Live Messenger, Skype and lets you keep dynamic statuses. Uses macros and variables to set the status.

Like, for example, I’m listening to %mSong% will insert the song name that’s currently playing on your media player across all instant messenger statuses. There are a wide variety of plugins you could add to HyperIM, for instance, there’s a plugin that works with uTorrent and shows off your torrent uploading/downloading statistics to your buddies.

IMHistory – This tool is in the Make Use Of directory, very very useful for archiving your chats across multiple IMs online so that you can access them from anywhere. It also comes highly recommended by Mark who has used it for a long time to tame his wild chat logs.

IMified – Unique productivity addon that brings lots of essential applications to your chat program (Gtalk/Jabber, AIM, MSN Messenger). Simply add IMified as a contact and you will able to access and use growing number of web applications right from the messenger window. It’s your personal assistant that can be your to do list, reminder service, calendar, Twitter client, and more.

FeedCrier – FeedCrier lets you setup notification alerts for favorite feeds and get them delivered to your instant messenger. Supports AIM , MSN Messenger and Jabber / GTalk. More about FeedCrier here.

Vicito – Vicito delivers latest filtered news to your instant messenger. Simply add relevant Vicito ID to your IM buddy list and tell it what keywords you want it to track and how frequently it should check for the news.

MessenPass – Forgot the password to one of your messenger accounts? Recover it with MessenPass. It works with pretty much every popular IM client, and can be used to extract the IM passwords of the currently logged in user on your computer.

Google Talk Plugins

We’ve Google Talk Add-ons before, here’s a list of stuff you can use along with Gtalk:

g Always Idle – Lets you make your status idle on Google Talk (even though you’re online and using it).

Extended Talk – Adds a ton of funky features to Google Talk, and you could use commands like /signout from the chat window once this addon is installed.

GPlus Addon – Adds more functionality to Gtalk, like graphical smileys, and other font styling. HTML Chat Logging is a good feature.

Yahoo! Messenger Plugins

Winamp Music Status Changer – Puts what’s playing in Winamp in your Yahoo! Messenger Status Message.

Buddy Spy – Shows the real status of your online Yahoo! Buddies, you can find out if any of your buddies are invisible or in stealth mode using this tool

Yahoo Messenger Hider – Hide/Unhide all Yahoo Messenger Windows with a single shortcut key. Useful if you chat from your workplace. Works with Yahoo messenger versions 8.1 and above.

For more Yahoo Messenger plugins go to Yahoo Gallery. There are plenty of user-submitted plugins there.

That’s it. Let me know in the comments if I’ve missed any of your favourite tools!

(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Blogger and Freelance Writer from India. He blogs about Computers and Software at Killer Tech Tips

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