ICQ also has an extremely useful feature that allows you to transfer files to an online user. If someone wants to chat with you, a chime will sound and a text bubble will appear next to his or her name in the buddy list. The user can in turn accept the request, initiatiating a two-window chat session, or decline the request. A dialog box will appear, allowing you to send a message to a user stating the reason that you are requesting a chat session. The basics of ICQ resemble AIM - to send an instant message to a user simply click on a user's name and choose the message option. In an effort to make ICQ a completely integrated communication system, you can even set the preferences to use ICQ as your default mail program (POP and SMTP are supported). The moment one of these world-wide-pages is sent, the ICQ users buddy window flashes an alert, and a click on the flashing icon displays the message on-screen.Įach ICQ user is also assigned an email address based on their user ID (mine is Sending email to this address results in a message and alert that is nearly identical to a world-wide-page. These pages allow non-users of ICQ to send messages to ICQ users through a Web form (called the world-wide-pager). Perhaps the coolest part of the setup process is the personalized Communication Center Web pages that are set up for each ICQ user. The search is quick and robust, which makes it fairly easy to locate users of the ICQ network. Mirabilis assigns each ICQ user a unique ID number, but users can be located and added to the buddy list using a search form that accepts email addresses and names as search criteria. Downloading and installing the application was painless and setup only took a few minutes. ICQ from Mirabilis is perhaps the most feature laden of the instant messaging applications. So, in the end, you will probably want to pick a single instant messaging tool and convince your circle of friends or business associates to use the same one. Theoretically, you could run several instant message applications, but as I found in the course of writing this piece, the screen quickly clutters as more and more user watch-lists are thrown up on the screen. Using any of these messaging tools, you can simply click on the name of any logged-on user to zap him or her a real-time message. This list typically appears in a floating window that contains the user names of friends and associates. Peoplelink, ICQ, and Ding! all allow users to monitor the logging-on's and logging-off's of people on a specified "buddy" list. In the time since that piece, the marketplace has literally exploded with instant messaging tools, each of which is incompatible with all the others. Needless to say, after years of using clunky UNIX tools to send instant messages, I was absolutely wowed by AIM.
#Icq online web software
The software allowed me to zap messages onto the screen of any AOL or Internet user who downloaded the stand-alone application. I first came across instant messaging, when I reviewed AOL's Instant Messenger this past summer. Strategists Can You ICQ Me? Instant messaging is bringing users together in real-time