Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger (YIM) is an advertisement-supported instant messaging client provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is free and can be downloaded and used with a "Yahoo! ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail. Yahoo! also offers PC-PC, PC-Phone and Phone-to-PC service, file transfers, webcam hosting, text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

Yahoo! Messenger was originally launched under the name Yahoo! Pager on March 9, 1998.

In addition to instant messaging features similar to those offered by ICQ, address-book integration and Custom Status Messages. It was also the first major IM client to feature BUZZing and music-status. Another recently added feature is customized avatars. Yahoo! Messenger also allows users to access Yahoo! Chat Rooms.

So, with Yahoo! Messenger, you can: 

• Instant message friends in real time, including your Windows Live Messenger friends.
• Add a Pingbox to your personal Web page so that you can instant message the people who visit your page.
• Call and talk with your friends. You can call a friend’s computer, mobile phone, and even the old-fashioned home phone.
• Share your favorite photos.
• Send text (SMS) messages to a friend’s mobile phone.
• Forward your instant messages to your mobile phone when you’re away from your computer.
• Save friends’ contact details in your Yahoo! Address Book and access the information in Messenger.
• See and be seen with webcam.
• Add plug-ins to do such things as listen to music through LAUNCHcast Radio, check your mail, and play games with your friends.
• Check out what your friends are up to by viewing their updates.
• Add color and graphics to your conversations and change the look of the application.

IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file sharing.

IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Oikarinen found inspiration in a chat system known as Bitnet Relay, which operated on the BITNET.

IRC was used to report on the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt throughout a media blackout. It was previously used in a similar fashion during the Gulf War. Logs of these and other events are kept in the ibiblio archive.

IRC Messenger boasts many features, such as a skinnable interface, encrypted chat, and voice (microphone) chat. It is simply a program that lets you make a list of contacts, and when those contacts are online, you can chat with them.

However, when all the features and aspects of IRC Messenger are considered, it is much different from those other programs. For example: while AOL Instant Messenger works through the AOL network, and MSN Messenger works through the MSN network, IRC Messenger works through, of course, the IRC network.

For those of you who don't know, IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and is one of the oldest and most popular chat networks in use today. People from every imaginable location on the Earth congregate on this network, and IRC Messenger is simply a tool you can use to tap into that vast arena. 

To become closer to IRC watch this video: