chat

Chat clients are great for interoffice communication and sending quick messages to co-workers and friends. The only problem is once you've chosen a particular chat client--usually decided by what your friend uses--you can only communicate from within that particular client's network. In other words, Yahoo chat users can only talk to other Yahoo chat users. If you've spent any time using chat clients, you know that people use several different apps, making it difficult to talk to everyone without downloading each one.

Fortunately, clever software developers came up with chat programs that would play nice with all the major clients, so you only needed one program to talk to everyone. There are a lot of these programs available for download and most are free. But in addition to the ability to chat with people on several networks, these clients also offer features and options that make them great apps in their own right.… Read more

Surfing the Web doesn't have to be a solitary experience, at least according to Me.dium, a browser add-on that uses real-time data to share information with your friends and the Me.dium community. Today, Me.dium added support for Internet Explorer 7, opening up the "social surfing" experience to a huge new audience.

In essence, Me.dium lets you share as much of your browsing information as you like with either a select set of friends, Me.dium users who are visiting a specific Web page, or the Me.dium community at large. The extension presents itself in a browser sidebar and displays your Me.dium universe, or "your online world." The map is based on your current Web location, your friends' current browsing spots, and your recent Web activity.… Read more

Trillian's all-in-one instant messaging client made its name by offering chat-happy users a single account where they could connect with friends from all the major IM networks. While the popularity of some networks it supports has dwindled, Trillian has only improved.

Check out Trillian's moves in the First Look video below, or see how it stacks up to competing all-in-one IM clients in a CNET video with Neha Tiwari.

Probably one of our favorites for chat programs on the iPhone, Heysan lets you sign in on three different popular networks. You'll be able to log in to MSN, AIM, and ICQ for instant access to your buddy lists and regular chat commands. Yahoo and GTalk are coming soon, according to the developer's Web site.

iPhone link: http://m.heysan.com/

Web site link: http://heysan.com/

It's unsettling to think of malware as cutting-edge technology, but its trickery has evolved alongside Internet trends like instant-messaging services Yahoo Messenger and AIM. Chris discovered this relationship when he clicked a faux-photo link in an IM message, letting loose a worm that instantly hijacked his buddy list. Would his friends now think he was perpetrating malware?

Find out Chris' defense and get the lowdown on IM spam (also called "spim") in this week's Spyware Horror Story.

If you're a social creature, Camfrog is a megapopular internationally-trafficked chat site that seamlessly integrates video and text chat, the Web 2.0 version of the old "party lines" that people used to call in to.

The schmoozing features include regular quizzes, as well as guitar instruction and deaf-specific chats, among others. Watch this First Look at Camfrog video to see if it's your kind of party.

This weekend has been a rather busy one for iPhone developers. Adobe Systems hosted the iPhoneDevCamp in its San Francisco offices, and the result is 50 new Web apps specifically designed for Apple's shiny new toy. Earlier today we wrote about some of our favorites, although one of the more important ones that didn't come out the developer's event was the new iPhone-optimized version of Trillian from Cerulean Studios. From the looks of the pictures on their blog, it looks a lot like iChat, and more important is finger- and eye-friendly, especially when compared to Meebo's current offerings.… Read more

I know that all the "cool kids" have moved onto multinetwork instant-messaging clients like Trillian, Pidgin, imeem, or Adium (for Mac), but I'm still a loyal Yahoo Messenger user.

When asked why, I usually reply that all of my friends use Yahoo Messenger, but the real answer is more embarrassing: emoticons. How could I live without "dancing guy," "big hug," "green vomit," "talk to the hand," or "laughing skull?"

For those of you who also like those goofy Yahoo emoticons, there's good news. Yahoo is planning to add 10 new emoticons to its instant messenger, and it's running a contest to let users submit their own entries and vote on their favorites.… Read more

Today, users of AOL Mail can start chatting from within their in-boxes, without having to open the AIM application. If you want to add this feature to your AOL Mail account, then visit beta.webmail.aol.com each time you log in, which will roll the new features into your existing AOL e-mail service. The changes are set to take effect later today. Gmail and Yahoo Mail beta both offer built-in chatting.

AOL Mail, which is undergoing many changes lately (details here), also offers POP3 and IMAP access for free. And by the end of this month, users of both … Read more