Latest Chat Software

The world of Internet chat has gone through so many innovative changes from the time it begun in the late 90’s. Many chat rooms are now voice and video capable. At the same time interactive sites like Second Life allow chatter to move around using their very own avatars.
This world has taken another step forward with voice changer software. Now people can actually disguise their voices by using specially design software that is freely downloadable over the Internet.
This is particularly popular in interactive sites where people are allowed to create their very own Internet persona. Although this is meant to create more interest, it is also potentially dangerous when abused.

Business over the Internet has never been better. Many service providers are more reliant conducting their business in this forum. Proposals are easily presented to potential clients. Transactions swiftly processed. With Live Person Pro, business over the Internet is made even easier.
This software allows business sites to communicate directly with their potential client. It is a window prompt that has a live sales representative available for any questions the potential client might have. Usually the sales representative makes enticing offers on the spot. Most popular users of this software are sites that offer insurances, music, movie and TV downloads, jobs and surveys, and software download.

There are so many horrors stories about kids being exploited on Internet chat rooms. Parents have very good reason to be concerned. Many site companies are working with parents to provide some sort of safety measures within their chat rooms.
Now Microsoft has taken a step further in helping protect kids over the Internet, particularly in perilous chat rooms. Embedded in the newest Windows Vista are two important features, Life One Care Family Safety and Parental Controls. Both applications allow the parents to closely monitor Internet activities of their kids. With these two new features from Windows Vista, parents can breath more easily.

With a myriad of chat software to choose from, users may definitely have more than one running on their computers. But do you know what are the most widely used chat software nowadays? As of today, here are the most downloaded chat software from Download.com.

ICQ (333,049 downloads) - send messages without opening windows, tabbed conversations, message, file and call history.

mIRC (219,769 downloads) - file transfers, multi-server connections, customizable sounds, and SSL encryption.

Camfrog Video Chat (214,549 downloads) - video-streaming chat rooms and multi-user videoconferencing.

Windows Live Messenger (58, 614 downloads) - free PC-to-PC calls and file sharing.

Trillian (50,862 downloads) - supports AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN and Yahoo.

Camfrog is a video chat program and community. It is currently owned by Camshare LLC. You can get a freeware version from the company’s website and you can upgrade it to the full version later on.
Users can create their own chat rooms or join a Camfrog-based chat room. There are a wide variety of chat rooms in the Camfrog community, from language-specific ones to adult-only rooms. This gives users a lot to choose from and to meet someone with the same interests as theirs.

Camfrog uses colors to distinguish users from one another. The owners’ names are in red, the operators’ names are in green, friends’ names are in blue, and general users are in black. If a user’s name is in bold, it means that they are using the full version.

RadiusIM is an instant messaging website that lets you know the location of your friends. You can talk with your contacts on either MSN, AIM/ICQ, Yahoo and Gtalk/Jabber. What is great about RadiusIM is that you do not have to download anything, so you can access it from literally anywhere.

When you log on to the website, you will first select your location. Your IM buddies will then be displayed in the Friends List as pictures in a map. You can zoom the map to any place you want in order to see other people from that location. The windows can also be resized according to your liking.

Image source: RadiusIM 

ICQ was developed by Mirabilis, an Israeli company,  which is now owned by the AOL subsidiary of Time Warner. ICQ’s very first version came out in November 1996, making it the first Internet instant messaging service. ICQ, for those who do not know, is an initialism of “I seek you.”

ICQ has a lot of features to boot like text messaging, offline support, multi-user enabled chats, free SMS sending (with limits), continuous file transfers, multiplayer games, greeting cards and user directory. ICQ is compatible with Windows, Macintosh and even with mobile phones. Its latest version, the 6.0.6043, was released in January of this year.

One of the perils of Web-based public instant messengers, especially for corporate networks is a virus entering the system. When this happens, since computers are connected in a network, the virus affects all of the computers connected. If you want employees to have an easy and most importantly secure instant messaging experience, you need Spark, a Jabber/XMPP client.

Spark was developed by Jive Software. It is an open-source, cross-platform specially built for businesses. Key features include telephony integration, spell check, bookmarks for group chats and tabbed conversations.

If you want a secure messenger that your employees can use without a possible virus threat, Spark really is the IM client for you.

Image source: IgniteRealTime