Webware

Updated at 3:30 PM with a note on Digsby's methodology.

Ctrl+F gives you the search bar to summon Web search and contacts.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt)

Rising-star all-in-one IM app Digsby received an update to its beta on Wednesday, officially announcing feature additions that Digsby tested in an earlier alpha release we had reported on in April.

A boost to performance power reduces Digsby's CPU usage by 50 percent, the company said. That makes it a whopping 20 percent more efficient than Digsby claimed it was in April's alpha test. (Read note below.) Avid users can thank some back-end work with a coding language update and a move to a new compiler for this reduction in resources.

On the usability side, Digsby is sporting the new and enhanced features we saw in the alpha test. The best is a hidden search bar that pops up when you press Ctrl + F. In addition to summoning buddies when you type their names, it can also conduct Web searches on Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, iTunes, and YouTube. This Web search aspect differentiates Digsby's search from those employed in other IM clients.

Digsby has added an option that will automatically keep new IM windows from popping up by default, instead letting the unread messages blink in the tray. In the message window, the company has added four additional emoticon packs, which you can enable one at a time via the Preferences menu (click "Conversations" and "Enable emoticons" next.)

The new beta build also lets you update your MySpace status. This rounds out its update services to top social networks--Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have long been supported. Digsby also improves the stability for file transfers for Windows Live Messenger (MSN), AIM, and ICQ, and can now give you an 'invisible' presence in Google Talk.

For those who have kept Digsby at arm's length until now, the faster, less demanding version of this app sweetens the deal. With instant messaging, social networking, e-mail access, and skin customizations under its belt, it's a must-try chat app for IM aficionados.

Note: Digsby shared a real-world methodology they used to arrive at the 50 percent CPU drop between betas. In a development environment, they installed the two versions of the Digsby IM client in two different locations, logging into the same account on both instances. Then they switched on the individual protocols that let you log in from more than one location--AIM, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, e-mail protocols, and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Both ran for 24 hours to compare the CPU strain as buddies signed on and off, and as e-mails and notices poured in.

Since Digsby only allows one version of itself to launch at a time, this was not something we tested.

Keep an eye on the cutting-edge releases and you've got hints at what might make it into the stable version of the products you use. A new private alpha release of Digsby's all-in-one IM application for Windows looks like it's slashing some of the speed and CPU issues known to plague the slick-looking chat and uber-status-and-e-mail-update application, now in beta.

Alpha users can now set their status in MySpace.

(Credit: CNET/Screenshot by Daren Darrow)

Some back-end work (specifically, an update to Python 2.6 coding language and a move to a new compiler) has reduced the CPU load by 30 percent, Digsby claimed in a blog post. In addition, Digsby did some work on stabilizing AOL IM and Windows Live Messenger (MSN) file transfers.

Other changes include new support for setting your MySpace status, and an option to flash new IM windows by default in the tray, instead of the current behavior that pops them up as they come in. Alpha testers will also be able to go invisible on Google Talk, and have a greater range of emoticons to share.

While most of us won't see these tweaks yet, Digsby die-hards can rest assured that improved performance, lower CPU usage, and more chatting niceties are likely on their way once the alpha testers conclude their bug-bashing.

Related: 10 days of IMing with Trillian Astra beta

At left, Yahoo's Pingbox application on my Facebook page. At right, the resulting instant message chat through Yahoo Messenger. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Facebook has a Web-based instant-messaging application, but Yahoo wants to one-up the social networking site with an application called Pingbox that lets Facebook users chat with widely used Yahoo Messenger technology instead.

In 2008, Yahoo released a version of Pingbox that would let people put an IM widget on their pages at Friendster, Xanga, hi5, LiveJournal, MySpace, and Google's Blogger sites. It was harder work to build the Pingbox application for Facebook but now that's available too.

With Pingbox set up, anyone who visits your Facebook page sees a chat window that invites them to send a message. Doing so initiates a chat through Yahoo Messenger--but you have to be using Messenger version 8.1 or the current 9.0.

Facebook has its own instant-messaging service, but it doesn't launch a pop-up window or desktop notification when somebody sends a message, so it's not obvious when people use it.

"We realized you could have Facebook sitting in a tab all day long and you'll never notice whether they IM you," Samir Mehta, senior product messenger on Yahoo Messenger Team, said in an interview at Yahoo's headquarters here.

Samir Mehta

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)

My testing of Pingbox showed it works as advertised. Setting it up was easy enough, and after doing so a "facebook pingbox" group appeared in my Yahoo Messenger contacts list. When initiating a chat, Pingbox asked me to identify myself, and that username appeared in the Pingbox group on Yahoo Messenger.

There is a limitation to the Facebook application compared with the other versions, though. Because Facebook doesn't run Flash applications automatically, visitors to the must manually click the application to start it.

One interesting element of Pingbox is that messages can only be seen in Yahoo Messenger, not other services such as Digsby, Meebo, Trillian, or Pidgin. "We don't interoperate with third parties. You have to be using one of our clients," Mehta said.

That's a drag for those of us who have to reckon with multiple non-interoperable instant messaging networks. But it probably makes sense for Yahoo as it tries to wire its Internet properties together socially. Yahoo Messenger is one key communications hub, and it's a component of the Yahoo Open Strategy.

The setup process requires you to authenticate yourself on Yahoo's network. After that, it lets you set a color scheme and welcome message, then offers a choice of a smaller or larger version for your Facebook page. The trickiest part: after you save your settings, be sure to actually activate it by clicking the button in the yellow bar at the top of the screen labeled "Add Yahoo Messenger Pingbox to your profile."

Meebo for Google Android is not a terrible instant-messaging application. But it isn't a very good representation of what IM clients for the Android platform can do, or even a good representation of what Meebo itself can do.

In this first release, the free Meebo mobile application lets you chat with friends on the major IM networks--Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger, AOL, ICQ, Jabber, and Google Talk. It also runs in the background while you work on other applications and scrolls message notifications across the status tray. So far, so good.

However, that about plays out Meebo's feature set on Google Android--a disappointment for a product making its world debut of a native application and a disappointment for a company that has recruited 40 million unique users into its Web-messaging niche.

(Credit: Meebo)

Is it fair for me to hold Meebo to loftier standards? Absolutely. There are certain features common to competitive chat applications on any platform. Having an IM application save your log-in information is a must, and that goes double for a chat app that otherwise asks you to sign into six services every time you talk.

Notifications, simultaneous chats, emoticon support, and options are also must-haves. Of these, Meebo for Google Android has only notifications, and they're easily missed if you glance away from the screen. Though also limited, Meebo's iPhone-optimized site saves log-ins, supports some emoticons, and makes it easy to flip back to the buddy list.

Specific to this Androidized Meebo, I'd like to pick whether I get a buzz, a ding, or a text scroll to signal an incoming message. The organization of the buddy list should also be customizable, so I don't have to wear off the pad of my thumb scrolling through online and offline buddies from each service.

Meebo's team says the Android platform isn't holding back these features. They're just not ready yet. Of course, Meebo says, emoticons and log-in recall are coming 'round the bend. The company just wanted to get the application into users' hands quickly.

Meebo should have waited until there was more to offer.

As it is now, Meebo IM serves a purpose, but it isn't the only multinetwork IM application in the Android Market. Also free is IM+ All-in-One Instant Messenger, which provides a better multinetwork chatting experience on all counts--remembered log-ins, emoticon support, and incoming IM text that appears on the chat window.

Some users have complained about getting forced out of IM+ All-in-One Messenger, though that defect didn't plague my tests. Meebo's next attempt will hopefully bring it in line with this more competitive player.

AOL on Monday quietly released a brand-new version of its instant-messenger application for Mac users. Called "AIM for Mac beta 1," it's a replacement for version 4.7, which has remained untouched since February 2004.

Back then gas was a little over $1.50 a gallon.

Unlike the changes in oil prices, those four years have amounted to little more than what was offered in previous iterations of the program, or Apple's iChat application which comes pre-installed in every Mac computer. In the new version users can change emoticon sets and tweak background chat wallpapers--all things that you can't do with the current version of iChat. There's also tabbed browsing and contact search which the previous version did not have. Otherwise, it's largely playing catch-up to the PC version, which has received the most attention and is currently on version 6.8.

Also worth noting is how much the market has changed since the latest Mac release. iChat and third-party applications like Adium, Digsby, and Pidgin have the upper hand with compatibility for other protocols. AIM for Mac is currently limited to AOL and Yahoo contacts, while the others support things like Jabber, ICQ, and XMPP. In a more frequently fragmented market, with newcomers like Facebook and Google, these open platforms simply end up being more appealing.

[via Macrumors and Ars]

AIM for Mac looks quite similar to iChat, although without the audio and video logos to let you know who is ready for media chatting.

(Credit: AOL Inc.)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you insist on chatting with Facebook and Gmail buddies outside a browser window, then it's worth taking Gabtastik for a spin, though as far as instant messaging applications go, the most interesting thing about Gabtastik is the technology.

As a Site Specific Browser (SSB) app based on Mozilla's Prism project, Gabtastik, which released a Windows beta this week, tethers the Web chat ecosystem to a desktop application. From this standpoint, Gabtastik is a success. The Facebook chat and Google Talk GUIs are spot-on. The essential problem is that the chatting isn't very interesting, and the program doesn't do much beyond keeping each site's proprietary chat actions and experience intact as is its nature as an specific, no-frills mini browser app. But good luck multichatting with contacts from both Facebook and Google--you'll have to switch between the two interfaces each time, an either/or prospectus that doesn't lend itself well to an unobstructed workflow and is worsened by the weak message notification system.

If Gabtastik can manage to create a unified interface with tabbed chatting, intuitive notification, and program preferences, and then integrate that with Meebo, Yahoo Messenger online, and Trillian Astra--whenever that comes out--it'll at least have a shot at gaining traction as a niche multinetwork Web chat client.

Gastastik for Mac has also been reviewed.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

After months of incubation as a mere preview download, Yahoo Messenger for Vista is now a full-fledged...beta. No matter, let the feedback loop continue with this dark and gleaming desktop chat application that elevates certain aspects of the instant messaging experience while falling a step behind in others. The new look and feel is certainly impressive, and beloved avatar and emoticons take center stage alongside the tinted display. But the multiprotocol IM client Digsby is snapping up a loyal following, and its adoption of Facebook chat adds strength to strength. Is Yahoo's effort strong enough to win back Vista defectors?

Update 2:50 p.m. This article has been updated with user experience information on AIM integration into Gmail.

Gmail and Google Talk users can now chat with their AOL Instant Messenger buddies through the Gmail interface, Google announced today. Rolling out to all English-based users by the end of the day, the new feature will let you seamlessly jump from chatting with a Google contact to an AIM buddy without having to use two separate chat clients.

... Read more

VBuzzer looks and feels like a basic instant messenger download, but it packs a whole lot more. It has your standard text chat and buddy lists, but also combines a Skype-like phone service, news feeds directly into the IM window, and the ability to send and receive faxes. VBuzzer is free to download.

While President and CEO Mike Mu says his target demographic is consumers--apparently not just young ones--and small businesses, it seems as though it might be tough to drag users away from established IM services, like AIM, Yahoo IM or MSN Messenger. He says his company is in the process of integrating VBuzzer with MSN, AIM and ICQ.

But faxing...really? I hate to show my age here, but has anyone under the age of 30 (a high percentage of IM users) needed to fax something in the last three years? Mu insists he's meeting a demand with this combination of services, and apparently he has 2 million users signed up so far.

VBuzzer is actually the second try at a communication tool for Mu's company. A year ago, it was released as Softroute, a VoIP client for PC calling.