Instant messaging services have become nearly as important as email for online communication. Once regarded as something for kids, instant message services have enjoyed increased usage by adults using the service to communicate with friends, family and by workers for business purposes. Problem is there are so many different services out there - America Online (AOL) has the popular AOL IM or AIM, Yahoo has a service, as does Microsoft and Google.
Because these services are free most people have one or more accounts on these systems. Where your friends are is another factor to IM services, sometimes requiring multiple screen names on different services to communicate with your friends. That usually requires a few software installations for the message services and can take up some valuable disk space & computer resources. Also, what if you have multiple computers or have home & work machines?
There are a few aggregate services available that allow multiple connections through one service. Easiest among these is meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) a web-based service that allows access from any browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) and connect to all the major services (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google, etc.). Using a central meebo login you can manage all your accounts in one interface with one buddy list. This is a huge convenience. No additional software is required, just internet access and a web browser. This is definitely worth a try for anyone with multiple messaging accounts.
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