MSN IM vs. ICQ vs. YIM vs. AIM, WHERES DA BEEF?

[Ace Nova]

I personally prefer MSN IM, it has a nice clean interface, second would be ICQ but it has a very messy interface.

Which Instant Messenger do you think is the best?

[mjames]

I use all three. Each has it's strong and weak points.

[Adam Black]

I use ICQ i think it has a LOT more features than MSN IM

[jer]

I use AIM and ICQ. I really only use AIM for ease of communication of one or two select individuals. I don't like icq because it's getting slow and bulky, but most my rl friends use it.

In most cases I prefer to use email to talk to someone, at least until I know them a little better.

-chuck

[westmich]

I hate all IM's

When I was with AOL (seems like years), I thought it was the most annoying thing. It never failed. I would get on-line to do something and all of a sudden up pops this little box telling me that someone wants to talk. Unlike a phone, the person on the other end knows I'm there and would probably be ticked if I didn't respond.

And what does this person usually IM me about?

Hi!

How are you?

What are you doing?

Well, I'm not doing what I got on-line to do. No, instead I'm focusing my time and energy on typing with you.

Thanks for letting me vent

[jer]

that's really the best thing about icq.. you can go invisible so you only talk to whoever you need to

[Elledan]

I use AIM maybe four-five times a year and I don't have MSIM installed

ICQ is my personal favorite, especially the ability to send offline messages and having those different 'moods' (ie Free for chat, online, invisible, occupied, away, not available, etc.) make ICQ the most userfriendly and convenient IM.

[TWTCommish]

I'm pretty sure almost every IM program lets you "hide" from unwanted "friends." I personally like MSN the most...it stores my buddy list on their system so It's fully updated wherever I go, unlike AIM. It's also very simple to use, lightweight and straightforward...and I like the little window that popsup to alert me of a new message without actually opening the message on top of what I'm working on.

[Ace Nova]

MSN IM also has an invisible mode its called "Appear Offline"

[James]

I only use ICQ...most of the people I need to talk to are on it (except a couple), and it has all the features I could want.
I dont really like the fact that it takes part of the screen, but I can put up with it
I will try the others soon...maybe then I'll start using them more.

[Hierophant]

Originally posted by James
I only use ICQ...most of the people I need to talk to are on it (except a couple), and it has all the features I could want.
I dont really like the fact that it takes part of the screen, but I can put up with it
I will try the others soon...maybe then I'll start using them more.

It takes part of the Screen? Mine collapses into the system tray after 15 seconds. New messages don't automatically pop-up but I can "Float" individual users that I am conversing with at the time. I can put about 7 users in the title bar of Internet Explorer and it takes up no screen space at all. You can even set it to float users automatically when they log on, ignore them, assign different sounds to various users so you know if you want to answer them or not and a lot of other things.

ICQ is the best multi-million dollar answering machine I have ever used.

[westmich]

Where can I learn more about ICQ?

Thanks

[wdmny]

Icq.com
I dont like having to run multiple messengers, altough, I my self have 4 of them. I usually only have AIM running, for most of my buddies use it. I wish that the "Everybody" program had a Windows version. It is a messenger for ICQ, AIM, MSN, etc...

[Owen]

Same here. Almost everyone I know uses AIM.

Owen

[James]

Thanks Wayne! I never knew ICQ could do that.
Now I have it set up just the way I like!
I will start exploring the options area of various apps now to see if I can make them work better for me