![]() ![]() By 2006, they had only 4 million active users (compared to Windows Live Messenger’s 27.2 million, this is a tiny amount). Also, by this time, Yahoo! and Microsoft had announced their own instant messengers, drawing users from their own extensive user bases. ![]() Since many people already had AOL screen names, they were more inclined to use AIM then ICQ. In 2002, AOL Time Warner announced that ICQ had received a United States patent for instant messaging. In 1998, they announced that they had acquired Mirabilis for the sum of US$240 million. Soon, big companies started paying attention. Unlike IRC, ICQ took the approach of letting users connect directly to each other through servers, instead of being forced to use a chat room. Their first product was a program called ICQ, a play on the phrase “I Seek You”. Four Israelis, Yair Goldfinger, Arik Vardi, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir, came together to form a company called Mirabilis. In 1996, the first major peer-to-peer instant messenger was born. There’s also a VoIP client that thinks it is a chatting program, an open protocol with many of its own clients, and Google’s approach. But the Big Four aren’t the only options for instant messaging. Each have their own protocols (though some work with each other). They support features such as microphones, webcams, file transfers, skins, and much more. Nowadays, there are four major instant messaging clients known as the “Big Four” ( ICQ, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger). Today, things have come a long way from IRC. Following the blackout, people started using IRC for other matters, such as technical support chat rooms. During this blackout, IRC was the only way to know what was happening in the Soviet Union until order was restored. While doing this, there was a media blackout. ![]() Although there were other chat room protocols available, IRC gained popularity during the Soviet Coup of 1991, when a group of Soviet government leaders attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev. IRC was started in Finland in 1988 by Jarkko “WiZ” Oikarinen. One of the first chatting protocols was a chat room network protocol known as Internet Relay Chat, or IRC. How did instant messengers get this far? In the beginning. Businesses use instant messengers like Lotus Sametime or Novell GroupWise within their companies. Almost everyone, from high school students to Congressmen, have instant messaging accounts. There was a time when geeks were the only ones who used instant messengers. ![]()
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