What do you do when you have friends scattered across the various instant messaging networks such as Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber and AIM ? Instead of using individual messaging clients on your computer you can use Multi-network messengers such as Digsby & Pidgin.
Unfortunately, all the instant messaging protocols are not inter-operable. The exceptions being Windows Live Messenger can communicate with Yahoo Messenger while Google Talk can communicate with AIM but only through the web based Gmail chat applet. Google and Yahoo have recently announced a tie-up to make their IM networks inter-operable.
Till then it makes sense to use the various multi-network messengers available such as Digsby, Pidgin (formerly known as Gaim) and Trillian. Out of the 3, Trillian does not support Google Talk in its free version and requires user to upgrade to the paid version called Trillian Pro. That leaves Digsby and Pidgin as the real free multi-network messengers.
Digsby scores over Pidgin on 2 counts:
- Digsby couples IM integration with Email integration never seen before on an IM client that allows you to read email headers, mark emails as spam & delete them. Digsby supports Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, POP and IMAP mail accounts and also allows for separation of email and IM accounts so that for example, you can set a Gmail account for email notification but not for instant messaging.
- Digsby also provides Social Networking integration for MySpace, Facebook & Twitter. You can get updates, Friend Requests, feeds, and other events directly on Digsby. Support for other social networks like Orkut can be expected in the future.
The only place where Digsby loses out to Pidgin is that unlike the latter it is not open source and there are too many program updates required to be released by Digsby to fix bugs. Digsby has recently promised a more responsive user interface and lower memory consumption with its next version. Compared to Pidgin, Digsby does appear to be slightly bloated but thats due to the extra features supported.
The other option is to use web based IMs like Meebo & eBuddy but that does not give you the convenience of applications such as Digsby & Pidgin. However, if you do need to use IMs in offices where IM applications are blocked then Meebo is a good option to have.
Finally, its not widely known but the Google Talk client can also be used as a multi-network IM to chat with your Windows Live & Yahoo buddies. You can follow these step by step instructions but this is not for the light-hearted non techies.
Download Sources: Digsby & Pidgin
