Cryptocat is free software that aims to provide an open, accessible Instant Messaging environment with a transparent layer of encryption that works right in your browser.

otr4j is an implementation of the OTR (Off The Record) protocol in java.

Mm, my hopes aren't very high at all that features are going to be added anytime soon but asking wouldn't hurt, I suppose. I know they already ruled out federation and Facebook still doesn't have it.

No, it's probably again basic messaging only and avatars. File transfers cannot work this way, p2p protocols are different. And you have to obtain a key from MS and signup for access (authentication is not xmpp standard), and sign the agreement. In Open Source world this is not going to happen.

Encryption and decryption is done in your browser using factory standard RSA algorithm. We receive and send already encrypted traffic. [ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2955300 ]

A Google Talk chatback badge will let visitors to your web page chat with you. They'll be able to chat with you whenever you're signed in to Google Talk.

[ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2713811 ]

Firefox addon that uses OTR to ensure encryption on web-based chats. [ http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2708142 ]

TorChat is an unofficial portage of torchat for Max OS X. It's a Cocoa application written in C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++. It uses Grand Central Dispatch. So Mac OS X.6 (and later) is necessary to execute it. It can run in basic mode (tor, integrated in the application bundle, is launched and automatically configured) and in advanced mode (the user configure itself tor, and give the configuration to TorChat).

DreamHost customers who are running their own Jabber servers @their own domains (a free feature included with all of our hosting packages!) can now add Google Talk users to their contact lists – and vice versa!

I’m a bit disappointed, but not surprised, that this initial launch of XMPP support comes without support for XMPP federation (“S2S”). If we had S2S support for Facebook Chat, then Facebook users could talk with users on any XMPP/Jabber network, and vice versa. This would also enable a particularly cool bridge between Facebook Chat and Google Talk, which are both based on XMPP, and it might even push AIM and WLM more towards supporting XMPP, so that we could have a truly universal IM network on the Internet. (We have it for e-mail already… why not for IM?)

Trillian for Mac is a fully-featured IM and social client, with all the usual Trillian concepts you're accustomed to -- connections, a connection manager, a contact list, tabbed chats -- helping you easily migrate from Windows to Mac. At the same time, the design of Trillian for Mac respects the user interface of Mac OS X, providing you with a seamless experience across your operating system. Trillian is a great tool to connect various instant messaging and social networks, including but not limited to AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and Facebook Chat. You can even connect to multiple accounts within the same IM network.

OneTeam is a versatile instant messaging client that is very intuitive to use. Even people who are new to instant messaging will find it easy to get started, while experienced users will discover a range of advanced features, like accessing archived conversations or setting up chat rooms. OneTeam offers all of the security features that you would expect, including client to server encryption, so you can be confident that all your conversations will take place in private.

Gibber is a secured chat client capable of firewall and filter circumvention, surveillance blocking and end-to-end encryption.

TorChat is a peer to peer instant messenger with a completely decentralized design, built on top of Tor's location hidden services, giving you extremely strong anonymity while being very easy to use without the need to install or configure anything. There exists a less commonly known mode of operation in which two Tor clients can initiate a fully encrypted peer-to-peer connection between each other that will not leave the Tor network at any point! This is what TorChat is using. Both clients build a normal 3-hop circuit from each end to some random tor node in the middle to "meet" there and connect their circuits with each other. Upon connection another layer of encryption is established reaching through from one client to the other, building one uninterrupted encrypted tunnel over all 5 hops between both clients. This means all TorChat traffic is end2end encrypted.

From the outset, BeejiveIM is just another multi-network messenger. It has support for all of the usual suspects -- AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk, Jabber, ICQ, MySpace IM, and even a very nice Facebook chat interface. What sets it apart from its clunky brethren, of which there are many, is the user interface. The UI (and I apologize for this cliché) is an absolute dream. The ease at which you can carry out conversations across multiple networks is almost superior to desktop apps.

Holla is a group chat app. The UI is built in a RIA fashion - i.e. is totally asynchronous and super fast. I've open sourced it for a book I'm writing on building Rich Internet Applications with JavaScript.

US law enforcement bodies view the sale of instant messaging service ICQ to a Russian company as a threat to homeland security. In spring 2010, Russia's largest Internet investment company, Digital Sky Technologies, agreed to purchase the service for $187 million from AOL. The US is sure that most criminals use ICQ and, therefore, constant access to the ICQ servers is needed to track them down. As the system is based in Israel, American security service have had access. The article concludes, 'Lawyers [of unspecified nationality] say that to block the deal the US Committee on Foreign Investment needed to cancel it no later than within 30 days after the deal has been announced — so unless the rules are broken, nothing can be changed.'

We're working to bring file transfer and the new toolbar to Gmail too. In the meantime, you can continue to access voice, video and group chat in Gmail from the “Video and More” menu in a chat window.

To make Facebook Chat available everywhere, we are using the technology Jabber (XMPP), an open messaging protocol supported by most instant messaging software, including iChat, Pidgin, Adium, Miranda and more.

If you like to chat, blog, post pictures and videos, share updates with friends or just socialize, you will enjoy EchoWaves.

ICQ 7 is a client that brings together all your social interactions from across the Web. Instead of having to open a few different pages and applications to get my friends’ status updates on Facebook, to read tweets of my favorite people and to follow what’s happening on other sites as well such as Youtube, Flickr, Digg and Delicious. ICQ 7 allows me to use one personal communication tool to integrate all my online social activities. I am able to syndicate my updates to all of my social networks with a single click and get status updates & tweets from all my friends in my networks in one single platform.

A year ago this day, Facebook announced ”Right now we’re building a Jabber/XMPP interface for Facebook Chat. In the near future, users will be able to use Jabber/XMPP-based chat applications to connect to Facebook Chat“. The news has been greeted positively in various places everywhere. A year later, strictly nothing happened, and that silence has not gone unnoticed. Facebook has not even issued the slightest announcement, except a wishlist bug report comment by Charlie Cheever mentioning that “some people are working on this. It will probably be done in a few months. Sorry the timeline isn’t more clear“.

Nurphy was built from the ground up as a pure conversation platform. Our focus on the conversation metaphor has lead to a system that drops many of the inconveniences and bad habits produced by other 'conversational' tools, like email and instant messaging. We want to make conversations better for you.

Digsby trying to explain why they eat up your processor cycles.

You can debate the merits of bundled crapware, and brush away the despicable nature of preying on those lacking adequate tech skills, but did you realize that Digsby is also using your processor to make money?

That's right. Buried in the Terms of Service that almost nobody ever bothers reading, there's this exploiting-the-fine-print gem explaining that they will use your CPU to run distributed computing problems that make them money:

Tries to reset the status of your protocols in case of a network failure.

Create your own chatroom and invite people through one simple link. You can also embed your chatroom on your blog, myspace, personal site, and many other portals. You can even invite people through email and twitter. Try it, we're sure you'll like it!

Welcome to the Pwitter wiki! Pwitter is a simple and elegant Twitter client for Mac, that is written in Cocoa. The application runs on only Leopard at the moment. Please report any bugs or feature requests to me. I would really appreciate any feedback on the application to make it better.

The purpose of this site is to give you the opportunity to meet new people rapidly, without having to register nor submit any personal information. Although, you may of course share your contact information with another participant if you wish to keep in touch.

The Nambu Network is creating the best possible social messaging experience: seemlessly integrated with a superior look and feel. Nambu OS X is still in beta, but progressing quickly. Download it and use it for free, forever. Please let us know what you think.

Bluebird is a clean and simple twitter client, themable and free. Bluebird is a free application that allows you to tweet, read your friends tweets, replies, direct messages (in a threaded interface), and sports a very simple, yet very powerful, xhtml + css + javascript based theming system.

Omegle is a brand-new service for meeting new friends. When you use Omegle, we pick another user at random and let you have a one-on-one chat with each other. Chats are completely anonymous, although there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like.

We’re proud to announce the release of the Meebo Notifier! What’s it do? The Meebo Notifier connects you to Meebo and gives you visual notifications for new messages in your Windows taskbar, without having to keep a browser open! (You’ll have to wait a bit longer, Mac folks…)

The v1 Download was pulled. v2 will bring many great new features, and better compatibility with all logs formats - so it's best to just wait for the upgrade

Digsby requires a Digsby account and there are benefits. Single sign-on is a HUGE benefit from contacting the Digsby server so wherever you go, your preferences including Account preferences travel with you. And yes it is secure because all passwords are encrypted.

If you can create a web page, now you can easily create an interactive IM Bot.

The Jaiku API is available for non-commercial use by outside developers. Commercial use is possible by prior arrangement.

1. JIDs like uin@aol.com or username@aol.com. 2. Host: xmpp.oscar.aol.com : 5222. 3. Allow SASL PLAIN. 4. Turn on StartTLS. 5. Make sure there is no '@' in the resource (bug in the service). Some clients by default add a resource with an @ in it. So you have to overwrite this.

In order to talk with users on any of these services, you have to already have a user account with that particular service. This is necessary so that YOU show up on THEIR "buddy lists" (since the other services don't support messages to Jabber users.. yet!).

Select the status which Miranda should set on startup, along with some other options. Per protocol configurable.

This plugin for Miranda-IM notifies of specified events (as incoming messages, incoming files, incoming URLs and other) by flashing the floppy disk drive's led. This effect is achieved by turning on and off the floppy drive's motor, so use it without abusing.

This plugin for Miranda-IM notifies of specified events (as incoming messages, incoming files, incoming URLs and other) by flashing the keyboard's leds.

The main task of the plugin is to provide possibilty of autoreplying, i.e. when you recieve message plugin replies using message, specifyed by you. This plugin is useful when you're not near PC but for you is important to inform several users about something ;). Plugin is working under Windows 2000 and higher.

Advanced autoreplier plugin which is capable to execute custom actions depending on incoming messages.

Anna the Alicebot is a bot that chats with your friends, like Elizatalk but better. This is actually an implementation of an ALICE bot using AIML files to give it the personality of Anna.

Auto away module with more options than the original like per protocol auto away options.

Service offering misc country utilities as flag icons and a IP-to-Country database.

Lets you set different nicknames depending on your IP address.
For example, you can set "Felipe@university" for some IP and "Felipe@home" for another IP. It stills doesn't support IP ranges, but it will be added soon.

This is an improved version of the HTTPServer by BG-Monster (or rather HTTPServer+ by Vampik) plugin. This plugin allows Miranda to act like a webserver and share whole websites, files and directories (with automatic, customizable index creation).

Adds counters for traffic and online time for each account. Based on Traffic Counter 0.0.3.9 by Ghost.

AMIP stands for Advanced mIRC Integration Plug-in. The title doesn't reflect actual functionality (as in 2001), but who cares?

Gsm-industrin har enats om en standard som gör att det ska gå att chatta oavsett mobilmodell, dator eller typ av chattprogram. Telekomleverantörerna siktar in sig på en hård kamp med it-leverantörer som Microsoft om en kommande mång­miljardmarknad.

BitlBee brings IM (instant messaging) to IRC clients. It's a great solution for people who have an IRC client running all the time and don't want to run an additional MSN/AIM/whatever client.

BitlBee currently supports the following IM networks/protocols: XMPP/Jabber (including Google Talk), MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM and ICQ.
How to use it?

Just install the program and connect to the BitlBee server with your favourite IRC-client. You will be force-joined into the control channel where root (the bot, your assistant, the bee) will try to help you to get the program working.

As soon as you get your accounts working, you can add users to your contact list and talk to them, just like you normally do on IRC. Open a query, talk to the person in the channel, or even talk to them in groupchats that will look to you like just another IRC channel.

The eBuddy Mobile Messenger is a completely new application. You can download it to your phone to get the best chat experience on MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk, ICQ and Facebook, all in one single buddylist. It remembers your username and password for quick login, supports sound notification of a new message, reacts fast and has many more advantages.

The fastest and easiest way to get your buddies on your mobile phone.
MovaMessenger works with your MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, QQ, GTalk, Jabber and other instant messaging accounts on your phone.

You can do lot of interesting stuff with Google Talk like get alert notifications, save bookmarks to delicious, manage web calendars, set reminders, write blogs, and so much more. Such features can be easily integrated into Google Talk through ‘bots’ which, in simple English, are like virtual friends who are online 24×7 and will always respond with a smile to your questions or requests. Here are some of the most useful ‘bots’ that transform Google Talk into a more useful program.

Jaiku is back after several days spent offline in a move to Google's datacenters as they continue their move to Google's App Engine service, the Google answer to Amazon's web services stack. In addition, there is now a brand-new TOS that existing users must accept upon login, which brings the original up to Google standards, presumably. However, what's most exciting is that users now have unlimited invites to share with their friends, a step we hope is just the first of many in Jaiku's rebirth.

Remobo creates an Instant Private Network ™ (IPN) between users.

Just login from your computers or add other users to your buddy list and Remobo will create an IPN between these computers, allowing you to...

Remote control your home computer and access files while at work or traveling.

Privately share large files like photos & docs between computers or with friends & family.

Replace your existing, costly and difficult to use VPN software.

Run games, video conferencing, streaming media, secure instant messaging and more!

AOL / ICQ has just launched a test server using XMPP, an open technology. This means that you’ll soon be able to talk to your ICQ / AIM contacts via Jabber. Google has already started using it. So who’s next? MSN!

MeeBone uses Adobe® AIR™ to place meebo home page on the desktop in it's own window.

You can now share your personal files with your friends, fans, and the Pownce community at large. In addition, we’re happy to announce that we’ve increased the base file size limit for all Powncers from 10MB to 100MB!

Skype is set to begin offering unlimited calls from the U.S. to phones in a wide range of international locations, according to the Associated Press. For $9.95 per month, callers will be able to ring folks abroad in 34 countries.

Chat to your Facebook, MSN, AIM, Yahoo and Gtalk friends from the web or the desktop.

an application that posts updates to Twitter. Please post a comment if you have any suggestions or you think it is good! :D

Plugoo Widget, to interact LIVE with your website visitors. Planet Plugoo, to meet people from all over the world, share your interests and chat with them instantly.

All you need to do is install cURL, a command line utility for Linux, Windows or OS X and then send a message to Twitter with your status updates.