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Instant Messaging Providers

The term instant messenger is a service mark of Time Warner. It is not used in software not affiliated with AOL in the United States. Instant messaging allows instant communication between a number of parties at the same time, by conveying information quickly and efficiently. It also features immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. There are a quite a good number of Instant Messaging Providers and the number is increasing in leaps and bounds. Given below is a list of Instant Messaging Providers:

MSN: The collection of Internet services provided by Microsoft is called Microsoft network or MSN. Since it was released on August 1995, its release concede with the release of Windows 95. The variety of services provided have also undergone a remarkable change since its release. The Hotmail webmail service was amongst the first that was being replaced by Windows Live Hotmail. Windows Live Messenger in turn replaced the instant messenger service of MSN Messenger. According to Alexa.com MSN presently ranked 5th amongst all websites for Traffic Rank.

Microsoft has went along with many other service providers, and also with other Microsoft departments to expand the appeal of the Microsoft Network. The examples of such efforts are:

MSN Encarta encyclopedia with various levels of access to information and cost
Microsoft adCenter
MSN Shopping that is recognized by eBay, PriceGrabber and Shopping.com

Yahoo: Yahoo is an American public corporation and global Internet services provider company. It has a range of products and services that includes a web portal, Yahoo Mail, the Yahoo Directory, news,a search engine, and also posting. Yahoo Messenger provides free of charge service and can be downloaded and used with a Yahoo ID. It also permits you to access other Yahoo services, such as Yahoo Mail. Yahoo Messemger is in fact, the largest provider of instant messenging services. Yahoo in fact occupies the frontmost position among Instant Messaging Providers. According to Web traffic analysis companies like Alexa Internet and Netcraft, Comscore,Yahoo is one of the most visited websites on the Internet and has more than 130 million users. Without doubt, Yahoo can be branded as the most popular and important of the Instant Messaging Providers. Yahoo Messenger is a popular instant messaging client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo.

ICQ: ICQ is an instant messaging computer program that is owned by Time Warner's AOL subsidiary. The first version of the program was released in November 1996. ICQ was first developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis. Its features include sending text messages, offline support, greeting cards, free daily-limited SMS sending, multi-user chats, resumable file transfers, and multiplayer games. Other features are searchable user directory and POP3 email support. While many users may benefit from these features, others regard them as "bells and whistles" which tend to clutter the page, and are also weakly organized.