ICQ 7: now it’s possible to integrate different social networks

After being the first massive program of instant messaging 13 years ago, ICQ disappeared from the spotlight. As a matter of fact, it didn’t disappear, it just lost market to other programs of the same kind as Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger.

Trying to gain prominence again, we find ICQ 7. The program counts with an updated and modern interface. As soon as we enter we find a series of eyelashes from where we can add contacts and do searches, see status updates and send SMS, apart from having on the top part a field to update our status.

This new version of the program not only lets us chat through its own protocol, but also integrates with different social networks like Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube, being able to update our status directly from ICQ 7 and simultaneously.

To be able to synchronize with other 2.0 webs, after we registered and got our user on ICQ 7, in the event we didn’t have one before, we go to “Set up your feeds” and on the eyelash “My box” from which we’ll be redirected to a webpage in which we’ll need to enter our username and password. We’ll be able to see our contacts’ updates directly from the ICQ 7 window.

Furthermore, it counts with the traditional contact search that will allow us to locate contacts on the area we want, and start a conversation from the window of the program. ICQ 7 chat window looks very similar to the one of the last Windows Live Messenger versions. It has incorporated buttons for emoticons, to send files, change fonts and more. Moreover, we can also add an image as avatar apart from being able to see our contacts’.

Another remarkable improvement is the incorporation of the possibility to send SMS messaged from the same window of the program in a quick and simple way within a few clicks, being able to store the numbers of our contacts to easily access them again.

This way, ICQ 7, turning into a multiprotocol client, looks for the integration with other social networks, recover territory. If it’s true that there are other applications that perform the same task like Digsby, Pidgin or Miranda IM to name a few, it’s worth it trying the news of this old contender.