Chapter 16. Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger (formerly Windows Messenger, and MSN Messenger before that) is instant gratification for those of you impatient with email delays. Messenger lets you chat privately with other people on the internet—one or several at a time—by typing live comments in a small window. This communications channel, called instant messaging or IM, also is the idea behind AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and Google Talk. Unfortunately, whoever you want to chat with must use the same messaging network that you do, so if you chat with a lot of friends, it’s not unusual to have two or three of these programs on your computer.

To get around this limit, use Trillian (www.ceruleanstudios.com), Pidgin (formerly ...

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