Digsby: instant messenger and social networks on a single program

The increase of the popularity of the social networks on the internet has caused that every time, we are registered in more of these sites and it becomes tiresome to connect to our accounts on each of them. To avoid this we find Digsby, in which, from a single window, we’ll be able to be on many at the same time, integrating and boosting our connections.

This powerful multiplatform messenger client supports a great number of protocols. MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, MySpace IM, ICQ and Jabber is a list that doesn’t leave almost anything out. Moreover, it doesn’t only provide us with the possibility to start conversations, but it also gives us multiple options to personalize our contacts list as a quick access to their profiles or the storing of the conversations.

If this wasn’t enough, we can also determine individually our status on each of the messenger services to which we are connected. Furthermore, it gives us the possibility to chat, independently of the service to which it belongs, with all our contacts from a single window and separating them in eyelashes. It also adds some additional features, like being able to do videoconferences. Although this last thing is easy to do, the protocol from which it does it it’s from its own, so you have to access a URL provided by Digsby when the videoconference starts.

Another of the Digsby features which turns it into a tool more than interesting is that from its main window, and by only passing the mouse on top of the names of our email accounts or 2.0 webs, we’ll be able to see the most recent updates or our inbox. Furthermore, this way, we’ll be able to update our status on the social networks, or answer emails with a single click.

Maybe the only thing against this application is that it is suspected that in those moments in which we are inactive, it uses resources of our own system to perform actions of distributed computing. However, this feature must be previously accepted to be able to run, although many question it’s not properly informed about its implications.

Beyond that and acting cautiously, Digsby is an option of great quality among the multiplatform clients that allows us to simplify our connection to the social networks integrating them on a single interface.

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.