04-15-2009, 08:39 PM
Raydog is correct, I have a yahoo instant message account, a microsoft messenger instant message account and a aol instant message account. I signed up for each at their respective websites years ago. Rather than use a separate client for each one I use adium which can simultaneously log into each one.
When I chat with people, using those various services, my chat window remains uniform so I don't have to deal with three different interfaces. Adium can also join to chat conferences which creates a bridge of sorts between the services if you want to group chat with people. It can also do private chats in case you want to go point to point and discuss something personal.
Fire is an alternative that does roughly the same thing. I don't remember what made me switch to adium but I've been very pleased with it. Also, it does keep an archive of conversations that can be easily searched but it is located on the specific machine you use and not available when you are elsewhere as compared to gmail chatting.
When I chat with people, using those various services, my chat window remains uniform so I don't have to deal with three different interfaces. Adium can also join to chat conferences which creates a bridge of sorts between the services if you want to group chat with people. It can also do private chats in case you want to go point to point and discuss something personal.
Fire is an alternative that does roughly the same thing. I don't remember what made me switch to adium but I've been very pleased with it. Also, it does keep an archive of conversations that can be easily searched but it is located on the specific machine you use and not available when you are elsewhere as compared to gmail chatting.