Online Chatting
One of the beauties of the internet is, of course, is that geographical distance becomes less meaningful.
Online, you can read email, or swap files, or chat, almost instantly with anybody, be they in Khartoum, Wagga Wagga, or Gloucestershire.
It's that last possibility I'll explore in this column, the use of Instant Messenger ( IM ) programmes to 'chat' in real-time, one-to-one, with friends and family across the world.
Apart from a babble of others, there are four major IM programmes freely available on the 'net - Microsoft's MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, America Online( AOL ) 's AIM, and ICQ ( 'I Seek You').
Which one you choose should be influenced by both the quality of the software, and the prevalence of use of that software among your friends and family.
This last because, without more software, users of one can't communicate with users of the other three.
As for the quality of each piece of software, the editors of
CNET, an internet site and software magazine, recently
evaluated all four , and found Yahoo's Messenger
the best of the crop.
They rated it eight out of 10, saying it was "the best and most versatile free IM client we reviewed, if you can do without e-mail tech support."
Also rating eight out of 10 was ICQ,
the editors saying "the free, legendary chat client just
keeps getting better. ICQ is the best pick, along with
Yahoo Messenger, for features and versatility."
AOL, which isn't so relevant in New Zealand terms, rated third with 7.6, and Microsoft's MSN Messenger fourth with 7.3, noting that relentless offers for premium (fee-based) services turn MSN Messenger into a big advertisement rather than a useful communication tool.
But apart from the quality of software, what about usage?
In the United States, AOL AIM is the market leader for both home and work use ( 53% and 56% respectively ) , while MSN is second ( 38% and 42.4% respectively ) , Yahoo Messenger third with 30% in both markets, and ICQ trailing.
There are no New Zealand figures freely available, but three
things suggest that it is safe to assume that MSN Messenger
is the market leader here.
Those are the fact that AOL is not a market force here, anecdotal evidence, and the long-time dominance of Hotmail, a Microsoft service closely tied to MSN Messenger, of the email services market, with 64% of total market traffic recently.
With that in mind, following is a quick how-to for using the software.
First, if it isn't already on your system ( Windows XP ships with it ), download the application from http://messenger.msn.com/.
Then, assuming you have an email address, go back to the above site and register, using that address, with the service.
Then start the application, and sign in with that address and the password you gave with your registration details. You will be asked to confirm your email address by again giving that and your password on a confirmation page.
That page will send an email to the address you gave. Follow the link that email contains to confirm your address, and you're away laughing, or chatting in this case.
Most of the interface is self-explanatory, but in case not, you can add contacts using the Contacts menu on the application, by giving the email address of the person.
Messenger will then tell you when that contact is online and available to chat whenever you start it up or if that contact starts their Messenger while you have yours running.
For those who want to look further afield at other chat applications, Tucows has an extensive list for Windows users.
If you want to use an IM chat client which connects with users of all four services, there is an evaluation, albeit dated, of four such beasts.
Happy chatting!
20/9/04
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