The Trillian web client incorporates a general desktop look and feel, minus all of your other windows. I can understand this metaphor as can most computer users, but I’m not sure it’s the best use of space. The more I use it though, I can see how taking advantage of the ALT+TAB function of switching windows tasks would allow you to quickly jump to all of your open chats very quickly.

As with the desktop client you can use just about every instant messaging platform you can think of and chat with video and audio. Organization of chat windows, grouping of all buddy lists and email notifications.

Visit the Trillian IM website for more details and how you can possibly participate in their beta.

Image: Snagit of Trillian IM website

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imo.im is the latter and have provided a very simple interface to combine your IM clients onto the web. I tried it out and it does a good job of quickly connecting to your accounts and displaying your buddy lists.

imo.im brings together all the major platforms and has just released the ability to pull in Skype contacts as well, which is a big plus in my opinion.

April 20, 2009 – Palo Alto — imo.im is a free online service that aims to make online communication more intuitive and accessible.  It couples voice, video, and text chat capabilities with the most popular instant messaging protocols. Currently in alpha stage development, the startup has released an update that introduces major new features and makes imo.im one of the only multi-protocol instant messaging services to offer Skype support.

In addition to Skype, MySpace Chat support has been added in the latest release. Voice and Video capabilities are now also functional on all supported networks–AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, MySpace, Skype, and Yahoo. No download or registration is required to use the service, and multiple accounts on different instant messaging networks can be linked together to one sign-in.

Language support has been expanded as well, through imo’s user-driven translation program launched in April 2008. With this system, imo now offers language support for Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Macedonian, French, Turkish, and more.

Finally, eight new features have been added giving users the ability to:

• Star favorite buddies for easy reference
• Upload and view buddy icons
• Search for offline as well as online buddies
• Change how a buddy’s display name appears in the contacts list
• Move buddies between groups
• Block and unblock buddies
• Set yourself as invisible upon login
• Voice and video chat with anyone

For a comprehensive list of imo.im features, please visit the imo.im website at http://imo.im/features.html

About:
imo.im (http://imo.im/about.html) is a web-based multi-network instant messaging service. It lets users IM chat with buddies on AIM, Google Talk, MSN, MySpace, Skype, and Yahoo simultaneously. The company was founded by Georges Harik (co-developer of Google’s AdSense technology), Ralph Harik, and Praveen Krishnamurthy in April 2007.

My personal preference is a separate application if I’m running on my own computer. I currently use Trillian Pro by Cerulean Studios, however sites like imo.im come in very handy when you need access to your IM Buddy Network, but aren’t on your own computer.

I’m still waiting for the application that will combine IM, Skype, Facebook, twitter and other social media sites into one interface. Now THAT would be nice.

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Facebook is one of those websites I’ve been trying to manage my time on lately. Between Facebook and Twitter, there’s a battle for which one will remain open the longest on my screen.

Now Facebook has added a new feature that may make it even more difficult to turn it off. They now have embedded chat features so you can instantly talk to your Facebook friends that are online.

To some degree it’s not a big deal for me because I’m always logged into all my chat clients (Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Y! Messenger) at once with Trillian. That along with keeping a Gmail tab open continuously lets me pretty much contact anyone that’s online at any time anyway.

However, for those people not as immersed in instant messaging applications already, this is a great new feature!

For people like me though, the next question is when there will be an application that allows me to combine all my chat clients (Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Y! Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, and now Facebook) all into one location and buddy list manager. That my friends would be the ultimate!!!!

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