The Download Blog

Digsby's buddy list.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Even though it's been around almost as long as the modern Web, instant messaging is still a great way to send short communication bursts without tying your ear to a telephone. But with great utility comes buckets of options: Do you use Yahoo IM? AOL IM? MSN? Google Talk? ICQ? What do you do if your parents are on one service, but everybody at your office uses a second, and your friends are all on a third?

Nobody wants to be logged in to half a dozen different chat programs simultaneously, which is where multiprotocol apps come in, to free up resources and streamline your experience by presenting a single interface for managing your contacts, regardless of their preferred networks.

In this collection we show off several of the best multiprotocol chatware apps around, some of which have portable versions that you can carry on a USB key. Google, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and others are one and the same to these helpful apps. To keep things fair, I'm presenting the programs in alphabetical order.

With so many ways to network and socialize online, you may find it difficult to keep track of everything. Digsby promises to help keep chat, e-mail, and social-networking conversations in one convenient place, but it's still in beta and not without its flaws. It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber for IM; Gmail, MSN, Yahoo, AOL, IMAP, and POP for e-mail; and LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter for social networking.

Miranda IM's buddy list and status options, with Google represented by Jabber.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

The contact list appears as a skinny rectangular box, with clear controls to add accounts to get started. From there you'll find a menu of IM and e-mail programs, and multiple social-networking sites. When selected, each simply asks for your log-in and password and connects to the system. Your various programs are displayed, with IM buddy icons separate from e-mail and social-networking e-mails. You can reorganize contacts regardless of network. Digsby is known for being sluggish, and although there have been vast improvements in this area, it doesn't have the best response times.

An unofficial portable version is also available, but many users have had significant problems installing it.

An interface refresh wouldn't hurt Miranda IM, but it makes up for the lack of pizazz by supporting most IM programs in one fully customizable package. It's got an older build for Windows 95, 98, and Me users, and comes in a portable version, too. Miranda supports 29 chat protocols, including AIM, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo, Google, MySpace, QQ, Skype, Twitter, and iChat, and allows you to manage the personal information for all your accounts from one central control panel.

Palringo's buddy list can include Facebook chat contacts.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Miranda IM's plain, gray instant-messaging window offers just the basics for typing and viewing messages. Text formatting options, emoticons, and other features can be added via plug-in. While this won't appeal to many people, if you're looking for a stripped-down application with features that can be built out only as you need them, Miranda is the strongest option. One plug-in even customizes where messages from a specific user appear on your monitor, and another tweaks hot keys.

Where Miranda's appeal is in being an IM kit with a multitude of Frankensteinian options, Palringo's strength lies in its portability across mobile platforms. It's available for your desktop as well as iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and other handhelds, and it supports MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Google, ICQ, Jabber, iChat and MobileMe, QQ, Gadu-Gadu, and Facebook Chat. It tends to consume a fair amount of resources, so it won't be as nimble as open-source options like Miranda or Pidgin.

Formerly Gaim, now Pidgin, this multiprotocol client offers a bit more out of the box than Miranda does--but it's still light on its feet and offers useful features like chat history and emoticons without tinkering. It, too, has a portable version. Out of the box, it supports Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Lotus Sametime, MySpaceIM, MSN, Novell GroupWise, AIM, ICQ, QQ, SIMPLE, SILC, XMPP clients like Jabber and Google, Yahoo, and Zephyr. Some of these, like Yahoo, are limited to the basics of chatting and file-transferring.

Pidgin's buddy list includes avatar thumbnails.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Pidgin makes plug-ins easy to access, with more than 20 packaged to be accessible but not weigh down the program. Messaging with Pidgin is simple, if frills-free. Smileys, file transfers, group chats, Buddy Pounce, and logging and time-stamping make Pidgin worthwhile, even if it lacks IP telephony and video conferencing.

Trillian 3 hasn't been updated in a long time, but it still offers a sharp interface, tabbed chatting, enhanced messaging functionality, improved file transfers, and a new Instant Lookup feature. The program offers simultaneous access to five chat clients--Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, IRC, and AIM--but lacks Google and Jabber connectivity. Trillian also eats a ton of RAM and can be sluggish even under normal usage.

There's also a beta of Trillian 4 available, code-named Astra. Currently it's free, and it's been in development for more than three years. It services multiple chat protocol, including Google, MySpaceIM, and Skype. It includes POP3 and IMAP account notifications rolled in alongside the Facebook and Web mail notices. Astra is still a chatting behemoth, but it is more nimble than its predecessor.

Trillian Astra offers an Aero theme, even in Windows XP.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

VoxOx brings two unique features to its messaging client. It's got multiprotocol chat capabilities, social-networking support, and Web-mail integration, but it also offers a telephony service that includes call encryption, mobile-to-mobile calls initiated by either SMS or via a Web site, a free personal assistant-style call forwarding service, and a system for earning minutes by watching ads or responding to surveys. It's essentially Skype crossed with Digsby.

To entice you, VoxOx offers 120 free minutes of call time to all registrants at the U.S. rate, a free U.S.-based phone number, international calling, pay-by-minute upgrade plans, voice mail, customizable hold music, video conferencing--limited to VoxOx contacts for now--two-way text messaging, e-mail-to-SMS support, and both desktop and mobile instant messaging for MSN, ICQ, AOL, Jabber, Yahoo, and Google. Users can share files up to 100MB via a generated download link that they can then share via e-mail or instant message.

VoxOx's buddy list.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

VoxOx is troubled by stability issues, and frequently the callback services don't work.

Out of these six chat clients, each one offers a different experience. The best one for you depends on your needs as a user, but one drawback they all have is that none offers the full feature set found in single protocol chat clients. Tell us about your favorites and the ones you like the least in the comments below.

Favorites, groups of contacts, and background themes are new to Windows Live Messenger beta.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you're an avid Windows Live Messenger user, now's the time to convince your friends to make the switch to the new Windows Live Messenger beta. If they don't, you'll be wondering what the hubbub is about.

Unveiled on Wednesday, the new beta offers a bundle of fun, fresh features, the best of which can be taken advantage of only when you're chatting with another beta user. As a beta, there are a few known bugs, and probably more to discover, but the adventurous early adopters who aren't afraid of leaving Windows' Messenger 8 behind will be rewarded with functionality that improves on basic tasks and new baubles to color the chatting experience. We've got a few complaints, too.

A field to drag-and-drop favorite contacts and the ability to create chat groups of up to 20 participants are available in the newly-designed interface, which has a much lighter look that some may see as more cramped and less defined. Changing the color and background theme (or "scene," as it's called here) helps--if you know where to look. A paintbrush image appears when you scroll over its hidden position in the top right corner.

The chat window repositions pictures and gets some manners you may or may not like.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The chat window has also gotten a new coat of paint, but it may look off-kilter if your buddy is using an older version of Messenger. Contact images have been scooted over to the left, but when I first began chatting, they were hidden from view (if this happens to you, hover your cursor near the left edge of the window). The contact who initiates the chat defines the scene, so don't become confused if your interface and windows appear mismatched. Microsoft has done this in a bid to let you dictate the way you appear to your pals.

In chat behavior, you'll notice that conversations no longer snap you to the incoming message when you've scrolled up to review the chat, and that each new line is defined by bullet points. I see the logic in both changes, but am not won over by either and hope they're soon made optional, or that you'll at least be able to choose between marks. That incoming dynamic emoticons were often cut in half is an issue known to Microsoft's Messenger team.

The new, more dramatic look is just one of the new beta's customizing features. You can also set up a signature chime that plays for other friends on the beta client when you sign in, and even more lasting, you can create dynamic pictures or short videos with the Webcam that map your recorded moods with certain emoticons.

If you've got a Webcam, you can get moody.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The feature, called mood tiling, changes your profile picture to one of you smiling, winking, or looking sad or cool whenever you enter that emoticon. It's a fun and engaging trinket for socialites using the beta app, but the images are only stored locally. If you open Windows Live Messenger beta on another computer--simultaneous sign-in is yet another new capability--you'll need to reset your profile image, nevermind your dynamic one.

Less engaging, but certainly more practical, is the ability to drag-and-drop multimedia from a desktop folder into the chat window.

This beta upgrade would have been an excellent opportunity for the Windows Live Messenger team to overhaul the emoticons, which appear all the more coarse compared with the chat window's juicy new looks. It's also lamentable that the new beta doesn't switch the chat window to your theme when it detects you're talking to someone on a different version--instead you'll see the app's default blue.

If you give the program a try, let us know what you think. Love it, hate it? Leave your views in the comments, or rate Windows Live Messenger beta here.

MSN

(Credit: Microsoft)

At GSMA 2008 Mobile World Congress, Microsoft announced that its MSN Direct services is now available on Windows Mobile devices. A technology preview allows you to get instant, at-a-glance updates on weather, top news stories, stock updates, sports scores, and more. The service will also automatically refresh the content so you have the latest information. You can download the free technology preview in one of two ways: by pointing your mobile Web browser to http://phone.msndirect.com or by downloading the MSN Direct client to your PC, then synchronizing it with your mobile device. Just be aware that using MSN Direct will require a data plan with your carrier, and you should also check for additional charges and coverage areas.

Here's a twist on the all-in-one cell phone chat client--make it call your contacts too.

Fring is a free VoIP and chat client. The downloadable app harnesses your cell phone's Internet connection into phone calls and chats with buddies on Skype, Twitter, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and ICQ. Your carrier will slap you with no accruing SMS fee, but you'd better have Wi-Fi reception or an unlimited data plan if you want to chat freely and stay in the black.

Fring groups all contacts, including those in your phone's address book, into a single list, highlighting icons at the top to indicate the service your buddy patronizes. You can click a buddy's name to call them, and choose the method of telephony--Fringo, GMS, Skype Out, or SIP. You can also select your service of choice from the call menu. To reach out and ping someone, you select the "chat" option from the menu and begin typing into the narrow field.... Read more