Your brother is on AOL instant messenger, your cousin uses MSN instant messenger. Your buddy is a die-hard GoogleTalk user while everyone else is crazy about Facebook talk. And now that Twitter is gaining a foothold you are about to go insane!

Deep Breath. One, free application is here to save the day.

I have been using instant messaging since it was born in 1996 – I have a 7 digit ICQ number. ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis, now owned by Time Warner’s AOL subsidiary.[Wikipedia]

ICQ was brilliant in it’s simplicity – you could see when your friends and family around the world came online. Keep in mind this was the time of Dial-Up! To be able to talk to family on the East Coast of the United States while I was living time zones away in Hawaii was fantastic!

Well of course Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft all saw the potential and started creating their own instant messenger programs, however, unlike email or web pages there was no communication standard agreed upon – so there was no software interoperability. MSN couldn’t talk to AOL, AOL couldn’t talk to ICQ, etc. This is still the case to this day – there is no universal instant messaging standard but inroads have been made.

The second major problem was feature overload. All I want to do is see my brother pop online, say hello, maybe send a photo or a file. Simplicity. ICQ started adding advertisements, games, FTP servers, and other bloat as did the other major players. Flashing lights and shaking screens took instant messaging from a serene, zen-like walk in a park experience to the county fair on crack and acid.

One of the early pioneers in IM interoperability was Cerulean Studio’s Trillian. They are still around today and have a pretty dedicated following but the service costs about $25 to get started and it has to be renewed for upgrades: “A license to Trillian™ Pro costs $25.00 entitling you to unlimited use of the version of Trillian™ Pro you purchased along with one year (i.e., 365 days) of support and upgrades as set forth below.”

So how do we get free software that let’s us talk to multiple IM clients? A super-simple online option is  Meebo but you need to be logged into the website to use it.

For a while the best deal in town was GAIM:

Pidgin (formerly called GAIM) is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time.

I loved pidgin, used it religiously, until I discovered Digsby.

Wakoopa, a social network centered around what software people use, has named Digsby the Best New App of 2008. It does 3 things and it does them well: Instant messaging, eMail and Social Networking.

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. One combined buddy list for all your AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat Accounts.

Digsby is an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as ‘Delete’ or ‘Report Spam’ with just one click. Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby.

And Digsby is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to. Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby. Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn accounts.

Now with any of these multiple IM programs one think to take into consideration is that you need accounts at the various services (AIM, YAHOO, MSN, Etc.)  I won’t go into detail on how to set up each individual account but I will give you two settings for Digsby that change the way it looks:

Tools –> Preferences –> Accounts:

This keeps a lot of icons out of your task tray. Simplicity!

Next, Tools –> Preferences –> Buddy Lists:

This will create a crisp, clean interface. I blurred the image because I don’t need 2,000 of my new closest friends IM’ing me. But you can see groups like Family and Friends, the icon on the left shows what IM network they are using. The blue one is Facebook, the butterfly is MSN, the smiley face AIM. The Green, Yellow and Red balls to the right indicate the user’s status.

Towards the bottom of the above image, the four gray lines are email accounts that have no mail waiting to be read – Google, Yahoo, MSN and another Google account. Below that we have Facebook, two MySpace accounts, two Twitter accounts and LinkedIn.

Simplicity. Love It!

Hey Mac users! A mac version is in the works, until then I don’t want you to think I forgot you:

Check  Out Adium for Mac. Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.

I have already addressed how to update your Facebook status from Twitter, but in the comments I was asked if you could do the opposite – update Twitter from Facebook. Yes You can!

There is a Facebook application called fb2twitter that will automate the process. The application is not fool-proof but it commands a pretty decent user feedback rating. Read up on the user comments if you have any issues.

Here’s another way to do it:

Log into Facebook.

Click this link: http://www.new.facebook.com/minifeed.php?filter=11

You should get a page that looks like this:

On the bottom right-hand side you will see Subscribe to these Stories:

You want to save the address under My Status. That’s the RSS feed information we are going to give to TwitterFeed. So right click on My Status and copy the URL or click My Status and save the URL address from your browser.

Mine looks like this:

http://www.new.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=709745864&viewer=709745864&key=6673382bb3&format=rss20

Now head over to TwitterFeed and create an account or login (I just used my Google account information to sign in.).

Once signed in to TwitterFeed, create a new feed and you’ll get this screen:

Username and Password? Whatever you use to log into Twitter.

RSS Feed URL? That’s the address we got from Facebook.

Update Frequency? 20 minutes? 60 minutes? How often do you update Facebook?

Prefix each tweet with? Maybe “Via Facebook” or just leave it blank!

So you are officially addicted to Facebook and are ready to start your own “1,000,000 Sigs To Show How Awesome I Am” group.

Several people friends have emailed me asking how they can create their own group in facebook – I live to serve.

Advanced Facebook User? Want the Lightening-Fast Way To Create A Group? Just Click Here – Otherwise:

• Log in to facebook
• In the bottom left-hand corner is the Applications button – click it and select GROUPS

WHAT? You don’t have the Groups application? Ok, pump those breaks – let install it.

• Click the applications button and a menu will appear
• At the top of the menu select Find More
• There is a Search Applications box on the top right – type GROUPS and hit Enter
• You should see Groups come up in the top slot:

Click on it and ADD the Application.

Ok, back on track now? Were was I . .

• In the bottom left-hand corner is the Applications button – click it and select GROUPS
• Top right – Create A New Group:

And I’m going to leave you there! Follow the rest of the directions and you’re on your way to sharing pictures of kittens or masterpieces of Victorian Literature – whatever it is you fancy – with like-minded facebookers.

Would you like to be able to update your facebook status from your favorite Twitter program? Then let’s do it!

The inspiration?

Subject: How do I get my tweets from Twitter on Facebook?

“Dear Dan:  I noticed that you can update Facebook by posting on Twitter.  How did you get that to work?  Best, Julie”

Ok Julie, First Step, Log in to your facebook account.

Then, try this link to take you straight to the twitter application. If it has changed or doesn’t work, simply do a search from the facebook search box for” twitter” and choose the tab that says APPLICATION. You should see the twitter application listed like this:

Select VIEW APPLICATION and then from the Twitter application page select GO TO APPLICATION.

You will be asked to ALLOW ACCESS, do so!

Next, you will be asked to log in to your twitter account. Make it so. . . and you should see this:

Select the “Allow Twitter To Update Your Facebook Status” and then you have one more screen to go:

Allow the Status Update and your done! Twitter away with your favorite Twitter program and when you do, your facebook status will be updated.

A good first tweet? How about a link to this tutorial!