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.

Post from: Uncover the Internet

Jake just let me know about a new site called Scour that lets you search the web like you normally would but adds a few different things to the mix:

• Get results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN all together
• Rate search results instantly
• Get rewarded by searching with Scour

Why does it seem to be so hard for me to think about using any search engine other than Google as my default? I’m sure that’s exactly what Google is wanting me to think though isn’t it?

I like the concept, but one thing I immediately noticed that I don’t like is that this is the URL you get when you click on the results to a link:

http://www.scour.com/view/result/?URL=http://www.bnpositive.com/blog/

The reason is because there’s a little comment bar on the bottom of the page that let’s you rate the page and give more information back to Scour about what you think. You can click on the “X” to close it, but that’s annoying to me. Not sure how else you’ll get the feedback they’re wanting though.

The idea of making some money for doing what we’re already doing by searching the Internet. According to their site, here’s the type of money you could potentially be making with getting more people to sign-up under you and get a little kick back from their search results too.

Give Scour a try and sign-up now for their beta. Of course I’d love for you to sign-up under me so just click on one of the links above and sign-up. If I make enough money to retire on a private island in the Caribbean, I’ll let you know.

Post from: Uncover the Internet