Six IM clients compared

Posted on Sunday, June 10 2007 @ 2:55 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

ExtremeTech took a look at six free multi-service IM clients. There's no Yahoo Messenger, AIM or Windows Live Messenger in this roundup, instead they take a look at some more alternative IM clients like Adium, eBuddy, meebo, Meetro, Pidgin and Trillian.

Many of them even add their own tricks. Meetro, for example, mingles location info with IM, and meebo is a purely web-based client (or should we say "Web 2.0-based"?), eBuddy adds a mobile phone version, and Adium gives Mac users a free, highly customizable, multi-service option.

We looked for features like services supported, tabbed message windows, grouped buddy lists, message history, chat text formatting, group chat, and interface customization. Read on to find out whether you'd be better served by using one of these enticing alternatives than that bloated standard IM client.

Read on over here.

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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