Buddy wars: Who is the IM king?

We don't want to be naysayers, but instant-messaging software could use some work.

Here at CNET, we love our buddy lists just as much as the next software-savvy gaggle of coworkers. But it's no secret: the same IM software we rely on for all sorts of communication, work-related and otherwise, tends toward the buggy, incompatible, crowded, and occasionally just ugly or intrusive.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth (after all, these apps are free), we're offering the big IM makers some constructive criticism in the form of the top 10 tasks we wish our buddy lists could perform. We're hoping some genies--er, developers--hear us somewhere deep inside their bottles.

To spice up our list, we've also included a catalog of the things we love and hate about some of our favourite buddy lists. Onward, instant messengers!

Contents

     1.   Intro
     2.   Top 10 buddy list wishes
     3.   Peeves and faves
     4.   Fixes
1 2 3 4 Next >
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Talkback 1 comments

    I'd recommend giving Imici (ww ...James Bishop -- 18/07/01

    I'd recommend giving Imici (www.imici.com) a try. It is ad free, tiny (the side effect is it's very light on features) and can use AIM Yahoo MSN and ICQ protocols. It's available for Windows and Linux.

    Also for anyone using ICQ, you can block most ads with a decent firewall. All you need to do is block the client from accessing port 80 and the most you'll get is an error message where the ad used to be.

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