North American readers might find it hard to believe, but a number of companies are currently involved in a bidding war over the ICQ instant messaging division of AOL. The service died off for the most part many years ago in North America, but the service still sports over 33 million users worldwide, and is the number 1 provider in Russia with over 8.3 million IM’ers.

The list of interested companies include Google, DST, and Nasper. Google’s interest in ICQ is most likely because of the Russian connection. This is a market where they have struggled somewhat to gain a foothold, and buying into an existing customer base is an easy way to make up some market share.

Anyone out there still use ICQ anymore?

Microsoft continues to plug away at Wave 4 updates of Windows Live. And the blogosphere continues to gnaw gristle about what changes these updates might include. Fresh meat has been tossed into the mix by Neowin, which claims to have received screenshots of an updated Messenger showing tabs and social streaming in the interface.

Social streaming is the more interesting of the two new features. Parsing Neowin, it appears that realtime updates of friends' Facebook entires, tweets, and blog posts, if enabled, will be displayed on the left side of the Messenger window. The streaming will be managed through Windows Live.

Tabs are a bit more mundane, but are a feature Messenger users have been asking for, and Microsoft promising. Tabs permit the hosting of several conversations in the same window, making it easier for users to manage.

Neowin notes nothing yet is written in stone, but that these screenshots do offer some useful insight into the direction that Messenger might take in its 2010 incarnation.

Image Credit: Neowin

A recent ComScore survey on Internet usage is reporting that Microsoft might not be leading the way in search, but in terms of total hours spend online, it has a commanding lead over its competition. The survey, which measured a whopping 27 billion hours of Internet usage by Web users aged 15 or older is an increase of nearly 24% over the year prior, and of those studied, over 3.9 billion hours were spent using Microsoft services. Google came in a not so close second place with around 2.5 billion hours.

The big winner in the Microsoft portfolio might surprise you however, with about 70 percent of the usage being attributed to Windows Live Messenger. Of course, this number measures time spent “online” and not just those “actively engaged” with the service, but it certainly shows the popularity of Microsoft’s instant messenger. Google’s numbers are pretty typical explain analysts, since they make it their business using search to try and get you “in and out” as quickly as possible. The most successful Google property continues to be YouTube with nearly 1.2 billion hours logged watching video.

Yahoo placed third with 1.7 billion hours, and Facebook commanded a respectable fourth place with 1.4 billion hours. The individual rankings may have been a bit of a shock, but the trend showing “Internet usage on the rise” certainly isn’t. Did any of these results surprise you? Let us know what you think.

Ding!  If you're still using AOL's default instant messenger (or Google Talk, or Yahoo! Messenger, or...), then you're missing out on a wide range of alternative features--more than you perhaps though possible in a common messaging application.  Or, worse, you're trying to converse with your friends across the various networks by using three or more individual applications at once.  While this might have been the only way to bridge the gap between these services before, you can plead ignorance no longer.  Start the uninstaller--and this article--and by the time you're finished with both, you'll never go back to the antiquated world of official messaging applications.  Third-party is where the real party's at.

What can you expect to find in these open-source and freeware apps?  For starters, an interface that combines a number of common messaging networks into a single program.  In some cases, you can even lump your friends' various online names across the separate chat networks into a single, unifying alias--click a drop-down box to specify which network you want to reach them on.  Beyond that, these programs can bring a number of plugins and external connections to the table.  Combine your Facebook and Twitter feeds into your friends list, find out when people are about to message you before they do so, and call your buddies through your messenger interface akin to Skype.  And that's just the tip of the IM iceberg.

Pidgin

What it does: I don't often play favorites in the freeware roundup, but I've been a steadfast Pidgin user for the past few years and can find little wrong with this lightweight, plugin-packed app.  Out of the, er, box, Pidgin supports a comprehensive list of chat networks: AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.  You can add more by downloading plugins for Pidgin, although you'll find a wealth of usefulness in the customizable add-ons that the application already builds into its default installation.  My favorite?  Check out, "psychic mode," which pops up a blank IM window whenever someone is about to send you a message.

Download it here!

Digsby

What it does: Were Pidgin to have a full-fledged rival, I would put Digsby at the top of the list.  What it lacks in cleanliness and unobtrusive installation mechanisms, it makes up for in total network comprehensiveness.  Not only can you message your friends across a range of the most popular chat networks, you can also integrate your Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and MySpace accounts into the app.  Get your friends' latest status updates, messages, photos--the whole kitchen sink--the second they post them. Heck, you can even use Digsby to check and send email.  If you really, really hate the idea of having to fire up a few programs for multiple social interactions, switch to Digsby. It's the ultimate aggregator.

Download it here!

Trillian Astra

What it does: This one's still in beta, but it's every bit worth mentioning and/or playing around with. Aside from the common IM features that one would expect to find in a program like this, unique additions include: the ability to specify on a user-by-user basis who sees you as "online" or "invisible," a unique "Trillian profile" URL that you can share with friends instead of having to go through a list of your online handles, RSS integration and automated file transfer improvements, and integrated IRC support.  The downside?  A number of the super-cool features are locked away to the "premium" version of this application.  And by premium, I (and Cerulean Studios) mean "paid-for." Still, if the Digsby interface turns you off, then you might find more happiness in the comprehensive, free offerings of Trillian Astra.

Download it here!

Miranda IM

What it does: Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.  If you don't have the time or desire to fiddle with a number of configurations, features, and plugins, then you might want to check out Miranda IM.  This no-fuss, no-installation IM application is a great program to stash onto a USB key.  Plug it in, fire it up, and you'll be ready to connect to AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, and Yahoo! chat networks, to name a few.  But don't think that you're always going to be restrained to basic IM functionality.  You can build additional features into your Miranda IM client by installing any of the 350+ addons currently listed in the main site's database. 

Download it here!

VoxOx

What it does:  Like Trillian Astra, the lesser-known VoxOx is still in beta as well.  And while it offers similar functionality to Diggsby, one of the stand-out features of VoxOx is its integration of a Skype-like calling functionality into the main program.  Your account comes with its own phone number for others to reach you at, and the application will even forward incoming calls to an external number of your choosing a la Google Voice.  A robust personal assistant allows you to customize your responses to incoming calls, including personalized responses for different contacts, call screening, and--my favorite--personalized waiting music.  If you want to share files with fellow contacts in VoxOx, your upload (up to 100MB) is converted into a download link rather than a direct connection transfer like other clients.  Although the software is free, calls cost $0.01 a minute for U.S. numbers.

Download it here!