Instant Messaging Question

[radhak]

So, just to ask again, is it like email, but faster? Someone has to know your IM address, and you, theirs? Also, is it text only with no options, like attachments, inserting hyperlinks, etc?
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That's a very good way of describing it - like email, but more interactive. and it's effectiveness is higher in conversations like :

1> hi
2> hey
1> you going for the happy-hour tonight?
2> naah, was wanting to grab the game at home instead
1> but the VP is gonna be there
2> he is? so is it a mandatory thing?
1> well, not officially mandatory, but you know how it goes
2> hmmm... looks like i need to be there...
1> good...lets pool cars
2> sure

now think of that exchange in email, pretty tedious. and think of it on the phone - more obtrusive, amenable to eves-dropping. and you could do this even while in meetings, or while doing something else at the computer, and you could carry on conversations with multiple people simultaneously.

the other thing is, unlike the phone, you could ignore a msg for a while, and pick it up when convenient.

nowadays IM clients are pretty advanced. you can share a lot of stuff, files, links, images, etc. and as many have stated above, many allow you to interact with IMs of different variety.

Though an IT person, i have been slow to IM; you need to be a bit more sociable than I am to IM (hah! i think i should try poetry today ). but nowadays i find the IM that comes with gmail (gmail-chat) to be pretty good.

btw, andrew, which client allows different 'presence' states for different audience? maybe i should get that - easier to handle.

[cabinetman]

nowadays IM clients are pretty advanced. you can share a lot of stuff, files, links, images, etc. and as many have stated above, many allow you to interact with IMs of different variety.

From what you're saying, in general, can IM's carry attachments, images, and different types of links, such as "hyper", "embedded" like we can do in PM's or email? Or, is it easier to say what IM's can't carry?
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[radhak]

From what you're saying, in general, can IM's carry attachments, images, and different types of links, such as "hyper", "embedded" like we can do in PM's or email? Or, is it easier to say what IM's can't carry?
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With so many options out there, not easy to answer which is carried and which, not. But some of the popular ones carry most of whatever emails carry, with limitations.
Eg - Pidgin (if i recall right, have not used it for some time) allows file and picture attachment, but only if the other party is connected. If not, you could leave 'offline' text msgs which they read when they are logged in. Some do not allow any IM msgs unless the other side is connected.

And of course, size of the file, size of the picture - varies everyplace.

[andrew.r.w]

... btw, andrew, which client allows different 'presence' states for different audience? ...

MS Office Communicator (Microsoft's new voicemail etc. suite) offers a sophisticated IM client that interfaces to Exchange. It allows you to organize your correspondents into groups and set your presence according to the group. I believe Avaya and Cisco offer similar functionality, but I haven't tried those. They depend on MS Exchange as far as I know.

I don't know if MS Live Messenger or any of the other freebies offer that feature ..

[LCHIEN]

the good thing about IM is that it can be carried on semi-real time, semi-background.
You can be doing a primary task, hear the beep, but an answer is ot necessarily need right away. At the next breaking point, when you feel like it. you cxan carry on a conversation with someone you know is occupied and not feel liek you're intruding, if you can wait for momentary bits of attention.