Web Worker Daily

Prateek says: November 17th, 2006 5:09am

Google Talk… its strong at wat it says.. Best voice quality.. simple n clean interface.. easy on resources.. integrates with orkut.. a perfect IM client thats getting better n better by the day.

Ben Langhinrichs says: November 17th, 2006 5:13am

I avoid instant messaging because it is often just another distraction, but I use AIM for quick communication with family and would only ever use IBM’s SameTime, especially with the excellent SameTime 7.5 out, with business colleagues.

Judi Sohn says: November 17th, 2006 5:16am

My contacts are pretty evenly split between MSN and AIM, so Trillian is my IM of choice to handle them all in one place with no annoying ads. I also have Skype running, as that is what my husband uses when he’s traveling. In my organization, most of us work remotely so IMs are essential.

KenP says: November 17th, 2006 5:37am

I use the AIM service primarily because of work and friends, and I love Trillian because we use Lotus’ Sametime at work. There are plenty of plug-ins for Trillian and I like the “one-stop” aspects of the product and I don’t have to use 3 clients to manage my conversations.

Trillian/AIM

PanMan says: November 17th, 2006 5:43am

I used to be on ICQ (with a low ID! :)), but I haven’t started that up in years. Now my contacts are split between MSN, Skype and some Gmail chat. I would prefer to use one (and, currently, Gmail would be my favorite), but it isn’t that easy to switch all your contacts. Lately I have mainly be using Gchat and MSN, as they both have a web interface, and I’m using many different PC’s.

Jaro says: November 17th, 2006 5:59am

I’ve been using Miranda for some time now but am looking for an alternative. I have problems with some ICQ contacts on my list. I see Trillian is quite popular, I’ll give it a go.

David Kemp says: November 17th, 2006 6:00am

I use Google Chat for my friends, who are mostly on Google Mail; MSN for work (because they already use it there); and sometimes Skype’s IM for some of my family, and a few friends who aren’t on Google Chat. I’ve also used Y!Messenger and trillian in the distant past, before most of my friends got Google Chat.
Out of all of these, I like Google Chat most. It’s unobtrustive, and it’s integration with Google Mail is brilliant. Also, the animations for smilies make me smile every time I see them.

Mark says: November 17th, 2006 6:12am

On the PC I use Trillian. I wouldn’t say I’m thrilled with it, but it lets me chat w/ co-workers on Yahoo! and friends on AIM and has a good array of features.

On my Mac at home it’s Adium all the way. iChat doesn’t extend enough features.

Amyloo says: November 17th, 2006 6:22am

Panman, wanna play who’s got the lower IQ? I mean, ICQ ID? Have you been following the eBay auctions for them? I don’t use mine but I wouldn’t sell it. It’s an early adopter status badge. Mine is 177117. At one point when I was a fulltime work-at-homer I had it on all the time with my name displayed as “Amy.” After getting some interesting but childish sexual invitations, I changed it to “Your Mom” and the unwanted incomings promptly stopped. Use Gmail these days, to see who’s on, but I rarely use it. Use AIM to track down my kids.

Amyloo says: November 17th, 2006 6:24am

A comment thread like this might have been a good primer topic for the message board.

Cristi says: November 17th, 2006 6:47am

I use Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk as desktop clients in Windows and Gaim in Linux. And I use meebo.com if my Yahoo Messenger hangs (happens a lot). I also have a MSN account but I connect to it only from meebo or Gaim.

I have to say that I am very disappointed by the new Yahoo Messenger, it is so loaded with useless features. I would really like an alternative to it, simple and beautiful as GTalk. I am in love with the simplicity, speed and clear sound of GTalk.

Anne Zelenka says: November 17th, 2006 6:57am

I prefer Skype, but I’m starting to use Google Talk now too. Never got into Yahoo Messenger or AIM much.

Amyloo - yes, this would make a good forum topic.

tiffany says: November 17th, 2006 7:03am

At work, I use iChat to connect to AIM and Microsoft Messenger. Most of my AIM contacts are professional / industry, so there isn’t much need to connect to them after hours.

At home, I use Yahoo! Messenger (because that’s where most of my friends are) and Skype. When I’m in the rare mood to be contacted by someone on my AIM buddy list at night, I’ll fire up Trillian (if I’m on my PC) or Adium X (if I’m on my laptop).

Jason morehouse says: November 17th, 2006 7:04am

I’ve used Gaim for years. It’s very solid, open source, and works on Windows and Linux (I use Linux). It supports gtalk, msn, yahoo, icq, japper (and more) in one view.

It’s not loaded down with ads, or useless features. Get’s the message there and back. Some nice plugins too.

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

Raul says: November 17th, 2006 7:10am

I use Meebo, it’s web-based and only takes one tab of my firefox !

It’s very very good.

http://www.meebo.com

Bye

R

Jakob S says: November 17th, 2006 7:16am

I use Proteus to connect me to pretty much every IM network in existance. For some reason I can’t manage to persuade all my contacts to use just the same service.

Oh, and Skype, but that’s for the cross platform audio/video more than the IM capabilities.

Paul Watson says: November 17th, 2006 7:38am

While I wait for gTalk to be ported to OS X I use Adium. It is OK but I do prefer GTalk’s interface, quickness and reliability.

jim says: November 17th, 2006 7:56am

i have moved back to ichat due to its low impact. i have my work account and friend account for before and after work hours. there is no need to have a buddy list open with the drop down in the menu bar. i am constantly changing my status as to alert those that might want to chat regarding my availability. chax has filled in some holes within ichat. i like adium a lot but the iffy file transfer made me dump it again.

Marco Cattaneo says: November 17th, 2006 8:07am

AOL AIM is my favorite one, but I need to use MSN because it’s the most widespread in Italy and Gtalk because few contacts of mine use it so.. Trillian rules!

mcantamesse says: November 17th, 2006 8:07am

I used ICQ (with a low id, but not SO low :-) ), msn, aol, yahoo… now I switched to gtalk: I love its neat interface, and its seamless integration in gmail..
The web-enabled feature is also useful, of course

Tom Mornini says: November 17th, 2006 8:17am

iChat AV

Mark says: November 17th, 2006 8:18am

[I've a fairly limited number of contacts who use IM ...at least with me] :

Open on my desktop is free version of Trillian to aggregate Yahoo, MSN, AIM. (Yahoo has fewer problems than MSN, so is used if a contact has both.) Used to use Skype a lot at previous company - not now. Have GTalk, but don’t use it

Have tried to install GAIM a couple of times (unsuccessfully), and prefer Trillian’s interface to Miranda’s

Deepak says: November 17th, 2006 8:48am

I don’t turn on chat at work. On the road or at home, I tend to use gtalk and/or meebo.

abeolson says: November 17th, 2006 9:24am

Owning a Mac, Adium is the best application I’ve found for IM. It doesn’t take up a web browser tab, it integrates with (nearly) all IM types, and provides many ways to customize your profile or test in all the different IM types.

Achilles says: November 17th, 2006 9:50am

Google Talk. Simple, Clean and Very Efficient. Love it.

Brandon Wood says: November 17th, 2006 9:51am

My favorite and most-used IM client is definitely GTalk. It’s simple, and it gets the job done. On my Mac, I use Adium to connect to all my different IM accounts at once (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk). It nicely integrates them all into one seamless application that is also very simple but effective.

jamus says: November 17th, 2006 11:16am

use imeem to aggregate multiple im, but fall back to msn for the easy vidcall features that i use often, being a remote consultant. clients appreciate seeing your face when you don’t work in their office.

Peter Garner says: November 17th, 2006 11:33am

Adium (logged into five different chat protocols). I have it minimized within an inch of its life and hidden off the side of the screen. Growl lets me know who is coming and going. The only thing Adium doesn’t do is AV chat, but that’s a minor irritant compared with the true excellence of this app.

Now, of only I could make Skype as small, and hide it off the side of the screen too, I’d be truly happy.

Allen says: November 17th, 2006 12:46pm

AIM and Skype mainly, gmail talk for one buddy who can’t use the others.

Jon says: November 17th, 2006 12:55pm

On my PC it’s Trillian and on my Mac it’s Adium.

Using just 1 IM client, such as ICQ, is too limiting. With Trillian and Adium I can log into just about any chat/IM service and do what I have to do. Of course to keep the distractions to a minimum I set my self to invisible permanently, but if someone *really* wants to get a hold of me they know to IM me anyhow.

Adnan says: November 17th, 2006 12:59pm

I am a recent convert to Campfire. It is a very useful tool to keep every one in your team updated on the day’s progress and to have quick discussions. The good part about it is that I do not need to log on to a public IM network where I would continually disturbed by my personal contacts, or even other business associates.

Gtalk does not work for me because it does not have group chats. However I am extremely glad for the automatic conversation logging.

Ryan says: November 17th, 2006 1:51pm

As a mac user, adium is the way to go. I love it’s multi-protocol capabilities and it’s ability to be skinned. That being said, instant messaging does not increase my productivity by any means. Email and/or collaborative documents work best for me.

Ryan

Island in the Net says: November 17th, 2006 4:48pm

I use iChat but have use the Jabber protocol to integrate my Google Talk, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL accounts. I can access all my IM account with either Google Talk on Windows XP or iChat on the mac.

Krish says: November 17th, 2006 5:34pm

Since I use Linux 95% of the time, I use Gaim + Skype (for voice chat purposes).

Phoenix says: November 18th, 2006 12:55am

Gtalk… Yahoo is too heavy! AIM is good for a local network…Skype is awesome for voice calls… Meebo rocks!

Chris says: November 18th, 2006 10:20pm

At work, our internal IM system is Jabber, and it has the connectors to go to other services. I use the Adium client on Mac for this.

But, we are also making very heavy use of Campfire these days as well. I use the Pyro app for Campfire sessions. The team just all pretty much sits in Campfire rooms all day, and since we’re a distributed team, it gives you some of the same advantage of all being in the same room (without some of the disadvantages :)

kansaisamurai says: November 19th, 2006 12:01am

I use Adium for usual chats, and iChat only sometimes for video/audio chats.

Diogenes says: November 19th, 2006 9:06am

I use the GAIM client to stay connected with contacts on MSN, ICQ and Gtalk (Jabber). It’s a lot cleaner and lower overhead than Trillian. Skype for the voice and video with my Parents on the weekends.

webwonk says: November 19th, 2006 11:11am

I use the Gaim client for my work, family and friends (who are on various jabbers and Yahoo IM). I turn off everything except text - no file transfers, voice, etc.

For file transfers I use Pando

For Audio/Video conferencing I use SightSpeed Pro (total of 4 endpoints per conference)

For telephony I use Diax and an Asterisk VoIP provider (SightSpeed charges too much for their VoIP service.)

webwonk says: November 19th, 2006 11:23am

I will be looking in to using Skype’s SkypeCast for a working group I’ve formed. This would similar to 37Signals’ Campfire - only free.

Sathya says: November 20th, 2006 11:14pm

I generally have use yahoo, msn and gmail IMs. [though I pretty much prefer Gtalk, its difficult to have all ur contacts move there !!!]
But running each of the IMs separately started to hog my laptop’s memory.
That is when I came across meebo, but did not like having a browser window open for this sake and ended up with Trillian. Pretty much satisfied.

Bernd Eckenfels says: December 4th, 2006 5:01pm

Prefering Gaim on Windows to aggregate various MSN, ISQ, Yahoo and Jabber (jabber.org, google talk, google apps) accounts. Too bad it does not allow me to skype chat.

gregg says: December 9th, 2006 10:52am

putting my 2c in a bit late, but i love bare-bones chatting and i love IRC. it’s so simple and effective and secure and i don’t have to rely on some 3rd party server. (i run my own server, so that adds to the security.)

to talk to my friends who don’t/can’t/won’t irc, i use bitlbee which is a service that connects to an irc server and allows me to chat with any of the major services through an irc client.

i used to use yahoo IM, but it got so bloated, i just couldn’t take it anymore.

mossman says: December 16th, 2006 10:10am

iChat, Gtalk and Skype - need something to cover the lot! Fave is iChat, nice interface and works very well.