Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is free to use (ad-supported) and has clients
for Windows and Mac OS. The protocol is proprietary but there are server
non-AOL clients that can inter-operate with it. As one of the earliest IM plat-
forms, AIM has a very large user base.
Windows Live Messenger is for Windows platforms only. The protocol is
proprietary but can inter-operate with Yahoo! Messenger users. It allows
offline messaging and file sharing.
Yahoo! Messenger is free to use and has clients for Windows and Mac OS.
One can also send and receive messages from the Yahoo! Mail web site, but the
reponse rate is much slower than with the Messenger client. The protocol is
proprietary, but users can inter-operate with the Windows Live Messenger
network. It allows voice and file sharing.
Google Talk is free to use with a Google account. There is only a Windows
client at this time. It uses the open XMPP protocol. Logs are saved automati-
cally. It allows voice and file sharing. Google also has a web-based Chat client
that connects to IRC sites.
Apple iChat is for Mac OSX (version 10.4 and higher). It supports the fee-
based .Mac network as well as AIM and XMPP. It allows voice and video.
Pidgin is an open-source application that can be installed on Linux or
Windows. It supports a wide variety of protocols, including AIM, IRC, MSN,
XMPP, Yahoo! and others.
Adium is a client for Mac OSX, and uses the same code library as pidgin, so
has many of the same network capabilities.
Jabber/XMPP is a protocol rather than a client. But its open nature means
that XMPP servers can be installed at any site, to build a private instant mes-
saging network with all the capabilities that XMPP provides. This may be use-
ful in some circumstances.
Chat
Chat is a generalization of instant messaging where the communication is with
a group rather than one-on-one. The protocols are often the same, and many
of the IM services and their client applications also support chat facilities.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
The best known chat protocol is IRC. Though outwardly similar to instant
messaging, interaction with IRC is via an IRC server which uses internet standard
protocols. Chat users communicate through a chat client, of which
mIRC
(http://
www.mirc.com/) is one of the most common, but available only on Windows.
