Two days ago I started trying out Digsby as my IM software of choice. It looks beautiful and works well as a multi-protocol instant messenger. The downside are its big memory footprint and the required online account registration (although the online account is then used to synchronize your customizations across different Digsby instances on different computers). There are small bugs here and there, but finally I no longer envy the Mac crowd for their Adium software.
I started IMing in the late 90s. Back then ICQ was the king (before AOL bought it and let it die). But because ICQ didn’t offer a decent Mac version, I resorted to running AIM on my PowerMac 6100. Most of my friends were still on ICQ, which I could only run when I used a PC in NUS computer labs.
In grad school I switched to Wintel at home and started using ICQ big time. There was even an unofficial text-based version for Solaris, which ran in most computer labs in our department. Unfortunately ICQ the software eventually got bloated and harder to use, so I moved on.
It was also in grad school that I started playing with Yahoo Messenger because it offered voice and webcam support. These multimedia features worked just alright over my 56k dialup connection, but they were good enough compared to the not-yet-cheap-enough international calling cards.
Then for years I watched Yahoo Messenger grew fatter and fatter with each release. Yahoo cramped tons of stuff into Yahoo Messenger, things like Yahoo Radio and 360 integration. Their installer got more intrusive as well, so much so that it ticked off a friend of mine because it hijacked her computer default settings. I had tried Trillian, the grandpa of multi-protocol IMs, but I went back to Yahoo Messenger because Yahoo Messenger still had useful functionalities over Trillian. And since I had more or less ditched ICQ and AIM by this time, Trillian’s multi-protocol support was not that critical. The same went for GAIM (now called Pidgin).
I should add that as I got older, my IM usage decreased dramatically. Since IM was not allowed at work back then, I only periodically used Yahoo Messenger at home. The same was happening to my IM contacts since they were also busy with their non-virtual lives.
In 2005 I switched job, and IM became the preferred method of communication at work. More specifically, MSN/Live Messenger was the preferred method of communication within the team. Prior to this I never owned a MSN/Live Messenger account or used its client. All of a sudden MSN/Live Messenger became my main IM because of work and because I preferred its UI over Yahoo Messenger’s. Better yet, MSN/Live Messenger soon introduced interoperability with Yahoo Messenger, so both of my contact lists were covered.
But then Google introduced GTalk integration in GMail, and bam! I had three friend lists. Trillian and Pidgin hadn’t changed much since I last experimented with them, so when I discovered Digsby, I happily gave it a try. Who knew a messenger’s UI reconfigurability can raise my interest in IM again?
I still have some concerns giving out my password online.
I was concerned too, but I also enjoyed the ability to sync customization settings because of the Digsby account.