I have added my new creation to my Contact page. It shows my online status in the window. If I am not logged in, you can still leave offline messages and I’ll receive them the next time I log into Meebo. I think this is really cool. For now, I’ll certainly keep it on my page.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a single protocol to use for instant messaging, as we do for email? I want the medium to create a single way of making it all work as one, with companies competing to have the best application to serve computer users. Friends and Buddies would be universal, and everyone could be active on the same network, mobile users included.

Personally, I hate IRC, which is indeed a standard prototol, but I am not talking about that in this discussion. I am keeping this specifically about the traditional instant messenger programs. Today, there are an awful lot of chat solutions out there. I want the networks of AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, Google (Jabber), etc. to become a single, industry-standard network. I have friends scattered all over the three big networks and it is ridiculous to manage. Having so many people spread so thin over these networks makes for everyone’s suffering in the end. With new technologies like MySpace becoming so overwhelmingly popular, I think the IM programs of yesterday need to merge into one to create a force that won’t become replaced or abandoned.

I’d actually read about this kind of proposal years ago. I heard that AOL was going to open up their network for use by everyone, and write a draft for an IM standard. At the time, AOL was the most popular IM service. I do not know if that is still true today. Obviously, the opening up of their network never happened and an industry standard was never created. I wonder if the will is still there today for this type of idea. We desperately need it, or I fear everyone’s buddy list will start to dry up as people switch to whatever the latest thing happens to be at the moment.

Until such a day, I’ll continue to use Adium on my Mac and Meebo on my PC as a way to access all of my chat services in one place. Vendor chat software like the real AOL Instant Messenger have become so bloated and full of ads, it is a wonder why anyone would even consider using them. Yahoo does make a good product, but the amount of memory it consumes is a little staggering, as is true with about all of them, as more features are stacked on to compete with the other guys. Perhaps some of the bloat in these programs can be trimmed by merging, as well. Sounds like a winning idea to me.

I often log on to IM services (usually with AOL and Yahoo). I don’t use the native software for any of them. I don’t need to, but keep in mind that in order to do some advanced features, you may need to use the actual native programs. Ads, feature bloat, and memory hogging are the mean reasons why I don’t download a one of them. I usually use an all-in-one chat program, such as Trillian (Win), Adium (Mac), and Gaim (now called Pidgin), which lets me log on to most any network there is today. But you really don’t need to install any of these programs. You can chat with all of your buddies on any service via Meebo. I used it exclusively when I first bought my Mac. I found that I really didn’t need anything more.

It has all the features you need and it works fantastically. You’ll soon forget you are using a website at all. You can sign on to any single chat service outright, but if you use more than one, I recommend creating a Meebo username so you can store all of your accounts under one roof. That way you need only sign on to their site with a single username and password.

I hear they have a sweet new mobile version of the site as well, for phone users. I have no interest in that, but if you want to sign on to your account from anyone’s computer, or your own at home without all the feature bloat, try Meebo. You won’t be disappointed. It finally does for instant messaging what webmail has done for email. All of your friends and contacts are automatically pulled from the server for each service, so absolutely no effort is required. Let’s hope this service is around for years to come.

Enter Trillian. It is a free, polished, and intuitive chat program used to access virtually all of the different chat mediums from a single window. There are no advertisements or extra junk installed on your system. There is a also Pro version available for paying users that has more advanced features. I use the Basic version. I used to use this program a long time ago, and back then, it did have a few rough edges. Since that time, it has really grown up and become very slick and polished. The version I am using now is v3.1.

One thing that I like is that the program uses plug-ins for each of the chat networks. You can choose not to install ones that you don’t plan to use. Best of all, even while connected to all three chat services that I frequent (AOL, Yahoo, and MSN), the program uses approximately 14 MB of RAM. You can’t even run a single one of the native chat applications with that little memory. I’d like to add that I rarely connect to MSN because I do not like it.

If you are using any of the chat services to do video chat, or even just audio, you will probably be better off using the real native program for that. But for everything else, don’t waste your time or space installing any of the instant messaging beasts. Trillian is all you need.

As far as I know, Trillian it is for Windows only. If you use Linux, then Gaim is obviously your best bet. But if you are running Windows, you’ll find Trillian to be much more modern and polished than Gaim. At the time of this writing, Gaim version 2.0 has not been yet been finalized. It seems like it has been ages since the last release came out. Therefore, I am basing my comparison on the current version of Gaim, which is 1.50.

Time has passed, and today when I sign on to AOL and Yahoo, there is usually nobody online. Is this just my experience, or have others noticed it to? Maybe I just have fewer friends than I used to or something. But it is only every now and then that someone on my list logs on.

Today, I use Gaim to connect to the services all at once. It uses less memory, has no ads, and isn’t intrusive. Although I am almost never engaged in actual chat, I sign onto it anyway, just to tow the line and try to keep it alive. I figure if my buddies log on and see at least one person, they’ll be more inclined in the future to keep logging on.

Perhaps newer technologies like text messaging, Skype, MySpace, and There.com have siphoned away users from traditional instant messaging software. I don’t know the reason, or if the problem is as bad as I see it from my point of view, but I sure wish more people would continue to use these services. If the original programs have grown too bloated and bulky for you, try using Gaim or Trillian instead. Either is usually a better alternative to the real programs.