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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I guess it’s because they want us to stay forever but sometimes you just really don’t like the site or maybe you are trying to clean up your accounts (because you have so many all over the net).

Whatever the reason may be, I’m sure you’ll find that this little cheat sheet will make deleting those unwanted accounts quick, easy and painless.

Yahoo

There are two ways to delete your Yahoo account. The first way is to totally abandon it for at least four months. Inactive Yahoo accounts are deactivated after four months so if you’re in no rush to get rid of it, you can simply stop using it.

The other way to delete your Yahoo account is to visit the Account Termination page.

• Log into your Yahoo account. If you’re already logged in you may have to re-enter your password just for verification purposes.
• Click here to get to the Account Termination page.

Facebook

Facebook offers two options. You can either deactivate your account or permanently delete it. Of course, the deactivation method is much easier to find than the permanent deletion option. One thing you should know is that if you deactivate your Facebook account, your profile information will still be saved such as your friends, photos, interests, etc. On the other hand, permanently deleting your account will remove all of your information from Facebook and nothing will be saved.

To deactivate your account:

• Hover your mouse over the Settings menu in the top right of any Facebook page and click on “Account Settings”.
• Click on the “Deactivate Account” link at the bottom of the page.

To permanently delete your account:

• Click on Help at the bottom of any Facebook page.
• Search for “delete account” in the search box underneath the Help Center heading.
• Click on the “I want to permanently delete my account” link and read the 2 paragraphs there.



• Click on the link at the end of the last paragraph, read what’s there and then click the “Submit” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

MySpace

MySpace makes things a little bit easier, no searching needed.

• Click on “My Account” in the top right corner of any MySpace page.
• Click on the “Account” link.
• Click on the “Cancel Account” link at the bottom of the page.
• Select the reason why you want to cancel your account, and then click the “Cancel My Account” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

Ning

One thing about Ning is that even when you delete your account, the content that you’ve added to any social networks you were a part of will remain on those networks. If you don’t want your content to remain, you’ll have to delete it yourself. An easy way to do that is to simply leave each network you belong to separately before deleting your actual Ning account.

In order to leave a social network on Ning:

• Sign into the network.
• Click on the “My Settings” link in the top of the right hand column.
• Click on the “Leave (Social Network Name Here)” link at the bottom of that page.

To leave the Ning network altogether you will have to contact Ning by clicking here. There is no option in the “I have a question about” menu for deleting an account so you will have to pick which one you think fits best.

MSN

Just like Yahoo there are two ways to delete your MSN account. You can either stop using your account for 30 days or delete it manually. After 30 days of non-use your MSN account will become inactive and after 90 days your passport will become inactive.

To manually delete your MSN account:

• Click on the little arrow next to your name in the top right corner of any Hotmail page.
• Click on the “View Your Account” menu option.
• Click on the “Close Account” link at the bottom of the page.
• Read the info, enter your password to verify your identity and then click on the “Yes” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

Twitter

Note: If there are issues with Twitter, the option to delete you account will be disabled and you’ll get an alert message like the one picture below. So, hopefully Twitter is in good shape if and when you try to delete your account.

• Click on the “Settings” link in the top right corner of any Twitter page.
• Click on the “Delete My Account” link at the bottom left side of the page.
• Confirm that you want to delete your account.
• Click here for the easy route.

FriendFeed

FriendFeed is another site that makes you do a little searching before being able to delete your account.

• Click on the “help” link at the bottom of any FriendFeed page.
• Click on the “Using FriendFeed” header to expand it.
• Click on the “How do I delete my account?” link which will be the last link under that section.
• Enter your password in the first box, type the word “delete” in the next box, enter the reason why you’re deleting your account in the last box.
• Click on the “Permanently delete my account” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

Jaiku

Jaiku has the account deletion option right where you’d expect it to be.

• Click on the “Settings” link in the top right of any Jaiku page.
• Click on the “Your Profile” link under the Account heading.
• Click on the “Want to delete your account?” link at the bottom of the page.
• Click on the “Goodbye Cruel World, Goodbye” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

If there are any other websites that we haven’t mentioned here, why don’t you tell us how to cancel an account on that site?

Image Credit : Gaudium De Lingua

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Today, I’m going to put in my own plug for Digsby, an application I use every day, by showing you six things Digsby can do that will save you time, energy, and RAM space.

Digsby has come to replace my use of several other applications – no longer do I need a Gmail window, Twitter window, Facebook window, and IM window open all at the same time. Instead, I just use Digsby!

Here are five features that make Digsby the only application you’ll want to always be open, besides just being the best multi-IM client out there:

Email Checking

Got a POP or IMAP email? Of course you do. That means you can use your email with Digsby. Setting up Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo with Digsby is incredibly easy; others are a little harder, but still entirely possible.

Once you set it up (under “Digsby” and then “My Accounts”), Digsby lets you check, read, and respond to your email without ever leaving your IM window. Mark emails as read, write them, or just head over to your Inbox to check them out- all using Digsby. I used to always have a Gmail window open to make sure I never missed critical email – now all I need is Digsby.

Twitter

After spending forever looking for the perfect Twitter client, I’ll tell you this- it’s not Digsby. But what Digsby is perfect for is reading Tweets. It’s a great way to stay on top of your replies and direct messages, as well as write tweets quickly. Digsby’s not the solution for power Twitter users, but it’s a great way to stay on top of all the Tweeting you do on a daily basis.

Facebookery

Just for the record, I love the new Facebook layout. But that’s beside the point. Using Digsby, you can do just about anything you would on Facebook, from right within the Digsby interface. You’ll be alerted when you have a new message, wall post, alert or notification. One click in Digsby, and you can see all the things waiting for you on Facebook. One more, and you’re sent right to a Facebook window within the Digsby application. Update your status easily, answer your wall posts, and stay on top of your social networking, all from within Digsby.

One of Digsby’s newest features is the addition of Facebook Chat. Now, you can chat with all your online Facebook friends from within Digsby. I love the idea of Facebook Chat (being able to connect in real-time with your friends on Facebook, which I have more of than IM buddies), more than I like the execution on the Facebook site itself. Digsby does a great job of using your friends list, and integrating it into its fantastic IM client to make chatting with your Facebook friends better and easier.

Socializing

Digsby’s options for social networking go far beyond Facebook. You can use Digsby to check your LinkedIn or MySpace account, and receive notifications, send messages, and interact with your network right from within Digsby. Each account gets an icon in your Windows system tray, and one click brings up a pop-up window letting you manage your social networks just as you would in a browser.

Got a new message? Digsby tells you about it, then lets you respond to it all without leaving the Digsby interface. It’s simple to use, not a memory hog, and an awesome way to manage multiple online identities from one place.

The Little Things

My favorite thing about Digsby is that its team pays such close attention to the little things: the small features that you never noticed before, but can’t live without once you start using Digsby.

My personal favorite is the pop-up notification box: when you get an IM, a pop-up comes up. Not exactly revolutionary, but what IS awesome is that you can respond from within the popup. No switching back and forth between IM windows and other applications – just type in the popup, and it goes away once it has been idle for a few seconds.

There are tons of features like this within Digsby: mass-changing of your status and away message, easy hiding and showing of the application, and endless customization of how it looks. I spent a while getting my Digsby to look exactly how I want it to, and big props to Digsby for giving you so many options.

What’s your IM client of choice? Why?

Photo: BigBlue

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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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Let’s also say that you have a major update to do and you can’t get a hold of the web host to change the password, because it’s 4:59pm on a Friday. What on earth can you do?

Well, let me point out a few tools that will allow you view passwords behind asterisk characters and let your employers know they have the übergeek for the job!

View One Hidden Asterisk Password at a Time

Most of the programs I came across worked the same way – open the locked program, open the password revealer, click on a button called ‘password reveal’ or some similar thing, then get the password.

Asterisk Key from Passware is one such solution. It will run on Windows 2000/NT/XP/2003/Vista and requires 64MB of RAM and at least a Pentium 300 processor. Seriously, if you don’t have at least that, send me a self-addressed stamped envelope and I’ll print you a copy of this article. You’ll get it faster.

What you’ll notice at first is that this is a piece of loss-leader software from a company that would like to sell you their other wares. Nothing wrong with that.

Once you have Asterisk Key open, open up the application you wish to recover a password from. In my case it was FileZilla. Once the locked program is open, you simply click on the ‘Recover’ button in Asterisk Key, and voila!

That’s great, but what if you have several applications from which you need to recover and view password fields? That’s where I find this next piece of freeware to be most useful.

Reveal Multiple Hidden Passwords

Asterisk Logger from NirSoft makes the process of recovering multiple passwords that are hiddent behind asterisk characters very easy. It works on Windows 9x, ME, 2000 and XP and with a little tweaking it will work on NT. I’m not sure about Vista, since I never made that leap.

The feature of Asterisk Logger that puts it above other asterisk revealer freeware is the fact that it logs the passwords AND shows the password in plain text right in the program you are using. Simply open up Asterisk Logger and start using those programs that you forgot the password for. Below you can see how Asterisk Logger reveals the password right in the program you are using as well as in Asterisk Logger.

You can see in the screenshot below that I opened FileZilla and Quicken to show you how it logs the passwords.

After a session on the computer with Asterisk Logger open, you can save the log to a text file to refer to it later. But remember to not tell anyone where the list is – that’s called job security!

Asterisk Logger does not work well with instant messenging applications though. But NirSoft has a pill for that too.

Reveal Instant Messenger Passwords

Yes, I am a NirSoft fanboy. If it works, it works. I searched for and tested others specifically designed for instant messaging (IM) software. They either weren’t really freeware or seemed sketchy.

MessenPass works.

“How well, Guy?”, you inquire. Well, I hate instant messaging so I haven’t used mine in about a year or so. I installed and fired up MessenPass and it not only found the password I was looking for, but an account I forgot I even made and its password as well.

Well, now you know my MSN username, so go ahead and add me. I probably won’t respond though. I am to IM what the old guy with the shotgun full of rock salt, sitting in a rocking chair, is to meddling kids. Get off my IM! Dagnabbit!!!

Got any other leads on cool freeware apps that reveal what’s behind those asterisks? Love to see them. Any stories about getting snookered by hidden passwords? I’d love to read those too.

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That’s why I’m still on Windows Mobile, along with a massive portion of the rest of the world. Windows Mobile is one of the most-used mobile operating systems, but it’s been largely pushed aside as the iPhone has become more popular. The iPhone has all its great applications, but there are a number of fantastic, useful, fun and plain cool Windows Mobile apps as well.

Here are five free applications for Windows Mobile, many of which have iPhone counterparts, but that do their job at least as well as they do on that Apple-thing.

Evernote

My favorite “external brain”, Evernote helps you remember everything. With Evernote for Windows Mobile, all you’ll need on you is your cell phone. Just fire up the app, and you can create notes from pictures, text or voice. Search and browse your notes, share and edit them, and manage your head right from your Windows Mobile phone.

Unlike the iPhone (as best as I could tell), there’s also a link to upload a file, which means you’re able to send files to and from your Windows Mobile phone. It’s perfect for when you need to remember to buy something, how much something costs, something you need to do, or just about anything that comes into your head that you’d rather not fly right out.

Fring

Fring is the mobile IM client to end all mobile IM clients. It connects to most major instant messaging networks- AIM, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the like. If you’ve got a Wi-Fi enabled phone, there’s even another killer feature- Skype. You can make VOIP calls with your cell phone, using Fring’s Skype support, and not use your minutes or plan, but simply by picking up a wireless signal.

Even without Wi-Fi, though, Fring’s a killer application for instant messaging, and can even update your Twitter status for you.

Tiny Twitter

Even though Fring can update Twitter for you, odds are Twitter users will want a bit more. That’s where Tiny Twitter comes in. It’s a Twitter cleint for Windows Mobile that also works on any Java-enabled device which covers some serious ground. Using Tiny Twitter, you can tweet without hitting your SMS bill (though you will incur some data charges without a data plan).

Tiny Twitter allows full access to your Twitter timeline, makes replying and messaging easy, and the “Inbox” view gives you a simple way to see and respond to tweets directed at you. Tiny Twitter’s the perfect Windows Mobile app for tweeting on the go, and is actually better than anything I’ve found for the iPhone.

The Core Pocket Media Player

TCPMP, as The Core Pocket Media Player is known, is the best way to watch movies and listen to music on a Windows Mobile phone. You can use it to stream media (again, watch the data charges), or to play a huge variety of formats of both video and audio. It’s a no-frills application with a small memory footprint that’s dead simple to use, and one road warriors won’t want to be without. Especially when you add the use of a memory card, TCPMP works with your phone to make it a killer media player- small screen or no small screen.

Kevtris

What fun is a phone you can’t play with? The iPhone has a ton of great games, but let’s be honest – there’s never been a game as wonderful as Tetris. The blocks, the twisting, the narrow misses that leave you tearing your hair out – it’s just glorious.

If you have a Windows Mobile phone, you needn’t ever be without Tetris again. It’s a free download called Kevtris, and is a blast to play. There are three levels of play, and several different games you can play as well – all similar to Tetris. It’s a fantastic time-waster, and a game I like better than anything the iPhone’s thrown at me.

I’ve been a Windows Mobile user for a while now, and thanks to these applications and more, I don’t plan on changing anytime soon. There are applications to do everything that I need, for free, and plus – I just love having an actual keyboard.

Are you a Windows Mobile user? What applications do you have, and which do you envy of the iPhone?

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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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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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Getting Started

When you first install the Yoono extension you create a Yoono account so that all your stuff can be tracked and viewed by friends and other users. When creating your account you will be asked for a username, password, email, birthdate, gender and country. The only required fields are username, password and email.

After entering a valid username, password and email the next step will allow you to stay in tune with your social networks and instant messengers. You can also find friends who are already using Yoono by an address book on either Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or AOL, or simply by their Yoono username.

There are a handful of social networks and instant messenger credentials that you can add to Yoono.

Social Networks:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Piczo
• Flickr
• Friendfeed

Instant Messengers:

• AIM
• MSN
• Yahoo

I think so far that the supported social networks aren’t bad but I’d like to see Plurk included because that’s becoming pretty big lately and I’m a big fan of it.

The third step after adding the social networks and instant messengers that you want to use with Yoono is sharing your bookmarks. In this step you can select the bookmark folders that you want to share with friends on Yoono. Once you have chosen the folders that you want to share, if you check ‘Synchronize your bookmarks’ when you click ‘Finish’, another window will pop up saying that your local bookmarks do not match the bookmarks stored on the Yoono server.

From here you have four options :

• Merge the bookmarks on your computer with the bookmarks on Yoono server.
• Export from your computer to the Yoono server.
• Import from the Yoono server to your computer.
• Never synchronize your bookmarks with the server.

The recommended selection is the first one and has ‘recommended’ on the label. When you have chosen the option that you want and pressed ‘OK’ for all of the services that you’ve added, your credentials will be loaded up in the sidebar on the left.

The Sidebar

This is what the sidebar will look like when it’s loaded. When you browse different websites the tags below your name will change depending on keywords that are in the website. Clicking on the tags will take you to the Yoono search page and search for other websites with the same tag that you have clicked on. All the items in the sidebar are widgets and can be removed and others can be added.

The picture for your account is displayed as well as your account username and status. When you update your status you can choose the social networks that you want your status to be sent to such as Twitter and Facebook. Under your status is the tag cloud.

The Friends widget displays your friends who are online on instant messenger services that you are signed into through the Yoono extension. Your Twitter and Facebook statuses and friends are also viewed in the friends widget. If you click the RSS icon you can view the activity that has happened across services.

The Web notes widget allows you to drag and drop text, video and images to share with your friends. If you like a website you can also click the ‘I love’ button, if you don’t like a website you can click the ‘I hate’ button and if you think that a website is funny you can click the ‘Funny’ button.

The last widget that is displayed under the default Yoono sidebar is the Discoveries widget. What the discoveries widget does is displays similar websites and show users who like the website that you are currently browsing. If you click the ’surprise’ button at the bottom of the widget you will be taken to a random website. This works like Stumbleupon in a way.

Adding Widgets

Adding widgets is really simple and all you need to do is click the ‘Add a widget’ icon at the bottom of the sidebar. When you click this you will see other widgets such as Music, Photos and Videos. To add these simply select them and press ‘Add to the sidebar’.

What Do You Think?

Do you think Yoono is missing anything or do you know of a better extension for Firefox that is similar to Yoono? Or do you think Yoono is just another boring unnecessary social networking tool? Let us know by posting a comment.

(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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So I have decided to make a list of five alternative chat MSN applications out there for Mac OS X that have better functionality and allow you to customize the look and feel of the application.

(1) Adium

Many Mac users will most likely have heard of Adium. Adium is probably the biggest multi-protocol instant messaging application that there is for Mac. It can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo and several others. Adium uses the libpurple library for most of its functionality so it is very stable. Adium allows users to customize almost anything within the application such as the buddylist window, chat window, sound sets, dock icon, status icons, plugins, apple scripts and so on.

The only downside to Adium is that, like MSN Messenger OS X, it doesn’t support video chats or chatting with a microphone. Overall however Adium is probably the most stable and most customizable messaging application there is out there for MSN on Mac OS X.

(2) Proteus

Proteus is a Cocoa application so it runs at native speeds on OS X. Proteus doesn’t just support MSN – it also supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and Jabber. Just like every other MSN client in this application so far, Proteus also allows customization of the contacts list, messaging window, sound set and status icons.

Proteus also allows for SMS forwarding in case you’re away from your computer and waiting for an important message from someone. I really like Proteus and think that it has some nice effects that finish the application off nicely and make it a nice application to have open. A downside to Proteus though is, just like Adium, it doesn’t support video chat.

(3) Fire

Fire is identical to Proteus as it is also a Cocoa application. So it also runs at native speeds on OS X and supports many IM clients (7 in total), not just MSN.

Fire is quite a nice application and lets you customize the sound sets, add feature plugins and choose between visual themes. It’s also open source so if there’s a feature which you would like to add to it and you know your way around XCode then you can.

(4) Mercury Messenger

Mercury Messenger is a Java based MSN application and because it’s Java, it also works with Windows and Linux.

A great feature about Mercury Messenger is that it supports video chat. Just this feature alone makes Mercury Messenger an essential application that you need on your Mac if you want to video chat to your friends and clients on MSN. You can also stream video files over your webcam stream which is a really cool feature. Mercury Messenger is customizable but not to the extent that you can customize Adium. With Mercury Messenger you can add plugins, change the skin and add custom emoticons to friends but that’s as far as customization with Mercury Messenger goes.

A nice thing about Mercury Messenger is that it is portable and can run from a USB memory stick. So you can load up Mercury Messenger and use it from any computer with the internet access.

(5) aMSN

aMSN is much like Mercury Messenger because it’s Java based and it runs on Windows and Linux as well as OS X. aMSN also supports video chat just like Mercury Messenger. Additionally is also supports video conferencing (unlike Mercury Messenger).

aMSN comes in about 40 languages worldwide so if you don’t speak very good English then download the version of aMSN in your own language. A nice feature about aMSN is that it allows you to send and receive voice clips just like Windows Live Messenger for Windows. With aMSN you can also sign into more than one MSN account at once without having to open up other MSN clients.

Just like Adium and Mercury Messenger, aMSN also has tabbed windows to keep all your current messaging windows together and organized. Plugins and skins are also supported with aMSN so you can customize the application up a bit.

6. Honorable Mention (Pidgin)

Pidgin was originally compiled for Windows and Linux but if you do a little bit of searching around Google you can find ways how to port Pidgin over to OS X in just a few minutes. Pidgin is a very nice application and definitely worth checking out. If you’re interested check our post on Pidgin Tips here.

(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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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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So I went looking for a free web-based tool, preferably a chat bot, that would send pre-selected RSS feeds to an IM program. After trying several that didn’t work as advertised (I won’t name any names), I finally ended up using ZapTXT – although the set-up didn’t exactly go too smoothly at first.

What I like about ZapTXT is that you can choose to have the RSS updates sent to either your email, an IM program or your mobile phone (although personally I was only interested in the IM option). The IM program options are particularly good – all the major networks are covered including Yahoo, MSN, AIM, Skype and GTalk / Jabber.

When you first set up your account, you have to set up your delivery options. I chose the IM program option and entered my GTalk details. You then have to add the ZapTXT bot to your contact list.

Once that is done, you have to then specify what feeds you want sent to you and how often (immediately, once a hour, once a day, and so on). A particularly good feature is the ability to also filter those feeds by keywords so you only get feed updates based on what you are looking for. If you don’t specify keywords then you will get everything that RSS feed produces. If it is a feed like Digg, then you will be buried underneath an IM avalanche! So if the feed produces a lot of updates, it might be best to decide which specific subjects you are going to follow and set up filters.

If you’re not sure of the exact feed address for a site, the ZapTXT engine will auto-detect all the RSS feeds on a domain that you specify and you can then choose which ones you want :

The difficulty I initially had was that the feeds didn’t kick in straight away, despite new posts being added to those sites. The ZapTXT bot also seems to have problems accepting Google Talk’s chat invitation so it took well over a hour for me to receive my first RSS updates. But once it starts, it works extremely well.

Here is what one of the RSS updates on Google Talk looks like :

You might be wondering at this point what the advantages are of using a service like this when you already have excellent RSS readers such as Google Reader. Well for me, some feeds are more important than others – in particular, the sites I write for, including Make Use Of. I don’t always have my Google Reader window open and so it is good for me to get a pop-up window from Google Talk whenever a post from one of my favourite sites is posted online. I also like to see my favourite feeds coming in on Google Talk if I am stuck for story ideas. Sometimes just seeing the headlines of my subscribed blogs is enough to spark an idea of my own.

Another benefit is if you are following a comment thread on a forum or a blog, sometimes seeing new comments coming in on your IM program allows you to respond faster.

Want another benefit? If you use Google Talk instead of one of the other IM programs, everything that comes in is logged in your Gmail account for future reference!

As Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspiration points out, ZapTXT is not meant to replace your RSS reader, only complement it. I have only been using ZapTXT for two days and already I am finding it indispensable.

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