Updated 14 Feb, 2012, 12:37 pm IST

Top 10 Web-Based Instant Messengers

22 Nov, 2006, 3:30 pm IST | Aalaap Ghag

No more downloading messenger software - just login from your web browser and chat away.

MessengerFX
MessengerFX is like Meebo, again, but it only does MSN/Windows Live Messenger. It makes very good use of new web techniques and AJAX, including movable windows and sound alerts. It looks decent enough, but the typography and CSS is a little rough around the edges and there are way too many Google ads all over the pages. They aren’t intrusive, but they’re still littered all over.

The next bunch of clients are original offered by the same people who made the software, not by some third-party users. Naturally, each of them will only support their own messenger.

MSN Web Messenger
This should need no introduction. MSN Web Messenger is the original, official web-based client for MSN Messenger. It looks and feels almost exactly like MSN Messenger 7.x, including all icons, smileys and window trims. The main contact list window pops out on its own, and each conversation window also pops out. But even though the web-based client looks just like the original client, it doesn’t offer features that competing web-based messengers offer, such as being able to right click a user in the contact list for more options (i.e. viewing his or her profile). The other issue with MSN Web Messenger is that, since it’s the official alternative, it’s probably already blocked by your office sysadmin.

Yahoo! Web Messenger
Yeah, it still exists, but it doesn’t seem like there's a lot of work going on over this project – it’s still quite dated and uses Java. It does smileys, but no IMvironments, of course. It looks okay, quite similar to the old clients that didn’t come with a lot of completely unnecessary stuff that the recent versions come with. And what’s funny is that Meebo looks more like Yahoo! Messenger than this original web-based messenger!

To use Yahoo! Web Messenger, visit the Yahoo! Messenger website and find the ‘Launch Web Messenger’ link hidden away around the bottom of the page.

« Previous Page

Tags: Internet , Web-based , MSN Messenger , Windows Live Messenger , Yahoo! Messenger , Google Talk , ICQ , AOL Instant Messenger , Jabber

Suspicion is growing that operatives in China, rather than India, were behind the hacking of emails of an official U.S. commission that monitors relations ...