ICQ still the best messaging program
This release--the first big one in about a year from ICQ, an AOL subsidiary--is an excellent showcase for what's happening in instant messaging right now, especially on a global basis.
ICQ--pronounced "I Seek You" if you're not familiar with it--is the pioneering instant-messaging network and the one to which the others are usually compared. The company says there are 110 million users in its member directory, although how many actually use the service each day is harder to gauge. I'm betting there are about 30 million unique users, but that's only a good guess.
The new version, downloadable beginning today at www.icq.com, is called Version 2001b (the "b" is for "beta"). One of the most important features is the new multilingual spell checker, a feature sorely lacking in other IM clients.
I applaud this new edition wholeheartedly, as I can't tell you how many times I've rewritten an entire IM just before hitting "send" because I couldn't figure out how to spell one word. Even worse are the times when I hit the "send" key and then--and only then--notice the mistake. Why other IM clients don't have a spell checker, I have no idea, but I suspect ICQ competitors will soon add the feature themselves.
ICQ is lagging, however, in tightly integrating videoconferencing into its IM software. This is something Microsoft is touting as a key feature of Windows XP instant messaging and something Yahoo has recently added to its Messenger software as well.
Another key feature of the new ICQ is the ability to send and receive IMs over e-mail and via cellular-telephone SMS text messaging, as well as through the traditional ICQ peer-to-peer Internet connection. The wireless IM capability, which also extends to personal digital assistants and pagers, is already well accepted in Europe and Asia, where more than 1.5 million SMS messages are sent between ICQ and SMS-enabled cellular devices each day.
While SMS hasn't caught on in this country, as wireless improves its reach and more devices come online, ICQ is well positioned to take advantage here as well. Of course, so are Microsoft, Yahoo, and even ICQ parent AOL, all of which have wireless implementations of their own in some stage of development or release.
Where ICQ really shines, however, is in how the company stresses community and linking people, whether they already know one another or not. Users can find people of similar interests using a new keyword search in the ICQ White Pages user directory. The "find-a-friend" feature, which looks for people you already know on the ICQ network, has been improved as well, and the authorization process that allows users to add you to their contact list has been simplified.
In short, it's easy to add people you know to your ICQ contact list, and almost as easy to find new friends on the ICQ network.
While ICQ users have been able to transfer files for several years, the new version lets you create a shared directory that is open to members of your contact list. This makes it easy for them to download files you make available to them. The only catch: They can only download from the machine you are logged onto at the time. This constraint makes the feature less useful to people who log on to ICQ from several different machines over the course of the day or week, than those with a single PC that's always on.
The look and feel of the ICQ client software has also been updated for this release, mostly in cosmetic ways, though some of the reorganization is intended to make ICQ's extensive privacy features easier to understand and use.
A new tools-on demand feature allows users to add or remove program features without having to exit and reboot. This gives users more control. For example, people who aren't interested in sending greeting cards can make the feature simply disappear from their systems.
The new release improves upon ICQ's ability to work with the programs you already own. Case in point: ICQ will look at your Outlook directory and attempt to match the e-mail addresses it finds to ICQ users. If it finds matches, ICQ populates the new user's contact list with the names it found in the Outlook directory, rather than the sometimes cryptic ICQ user names. For example, Bob Smith would appear in the contact list as "Bob Smith," instead of BobEBaby or BSmith1928585--examples of typical ICQ user names.
ICQ has been in business since 1996 and is based in Israel. The company was purchased by AOL in 1998, a move seen as something of an end run around Microsoft (or anyone else who might have bought the company--and its huge user base). While AOL hasn't done much with ICQ (although I understand it is a profitable business unit), I've been told the recent AOL reorg will place more focus on the company as time goes on.
The last release didn't work well with--actually, it broke--my Outlook XP. That's been fixed in this release and I haven't run into any immediate gotchas. Since the software and service are free, upgrading to the new 2001b version makes good sense.
Are you ready to move up to a new ICQ? TalkBack to me!