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Many of us use these programs on a daily basis for both pleasure and business. I use it daily for my full time work, my freelance work, and for pleasure (which is usually a mix of work and pleasure). So I thought I would take a moment to go over some pros and cons of some that I use frequently. I Typically do not try to specifically endorse one product over another or one program over another and will not be here.

With that said. Here is a list of the few messaging programs I will be mentioning.
- Trillian 3.1 Basic
- Yahoo! Messenger
- Google Talk
- AIM Triton

Trillian 3.1 Basic
Pros: This program for me has long since been a favorite. I have been using it since it came out (or so it seems). There are several really cool features and reasons to use this IM program. The best feature of all hands down has to be the ability to use AIM, Y!, ICQ, MSN, Google Talk, and IRC. There are also numerous skins that can be downloaded for FREE (also a favorite feature of mine).

Cons: As with any program there will be some glitches. A friend of mine had to stop using it, because he was not receving all the messages that were sent to him. There was no pattern as to why, or any particular reason we could narrow down. Within the last few days I have noticed that when I was typing any message there was a second or two pause while I was typing. Now that doesn’t sound too bad, but when you type over 70 words a minute one to two seconds is a whole sentence that you are typing and not seeing appear until the ‘pause’ is passed. I checked that my resources were working fine, connection was good, and program was up to date. To no avail it was still happening. I will be trying it again soon to see if it was just a wierd glitch based on date (something mentioned about that on their forums).

Yahoo! Messenger
Pros: Yahoo is continuously suprising me with quality products, whether it be the searching, publisher network, and lately their messenger. I like their interface, the ease of use, and everything. Very functional, the voice chat feature is far superior to most other voice chats that I have used. Even their video works flawlessly so far too. I haven’t had a chance to really play around too much but am looking forward to experimenting more soon.

Cons: The only con I have to say about this one is the lack of users. Most people are using another messaging system and are not on Yahoo. I have very few friends using Y!. I wish it were more as it is one of the finest quality programs for messaging to date.

Google Talk
Pros: I was pretty excited to try out this program when it first was launched. I downloaded it, tried it out and found that its simplicity is very nice. I very much liked the smooth transitions from message window to message window. I thought the user list was very nice, and the email notification was also very good. I do think it is lacking in some of the better features that AIM, Y!, ICQ, and MSN already have. I think this is the program that has the biggest potential as they have all the others to mimic and improve on.

Cons: Like the Yahoo con, there are very few people who have and use this as their messaging system. So for me it is just another one open.

AIM Triton
Pros: I just downloaded this yesterday and I must say: WOW. I was very impressed. AIM has come a long way. After a slight learning curve on how to manage a few of the features (as they have moved around) I was off and running with ease. There new version, Triton, is by far their best version. They have taken the sleekness of the Google Talk IM window, the look & feel of the Yahoo messenger, and the versatility of their previous AIM and bundled it into Triton. It has a singular window for all the open conversations, where the one in focus is on the forefront, and all the others are visible with typing and new message indicators in a bar on the left. When you go from one conversation to the next they slide in and out similar to Google fading. I also like the fact that the conversations are auto logged (contrary to any of their other versions) right there in the window, which makes for an easy way to not get confused with what you said to who (admit it we all forget from time to time). There is also features which allow for an address book which I believe syncs with Outlook. I have not had a chance to play with this and am not really sure I want to, but the feature is neat. I was blown away with this, especially from AOL.

Cons: There are really only two pet peeves I have. First are the ads that MUST be either on the buddy list window or in the messaging window. Second is the fact that when you install it you MUST install an AOL Explorer, their verison of a web browser. This option can not be turned off, and you can not remove it after the installation. They also force you to use it when you click any links from within their program (like buddy icons, expressions, etc).

Sign up, IM, and talk often.

Till Then…

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