*IM* or _Instant Messaging_ (usually referred as *IMP* or _Instant Messaging and Presence_) is a type of application for chat and presence - most popularly on proprietary networks such as "MSN Messenger":http://messenger.msn.de/ (now called "Windows Live Messenger":http://get.live.com/messenger/overview), "YahooI Messenger":http://messenger.yahoo.com/, "AIM":http://aim.com, [[Gadu-Gadu]], [[QQ]] or "ICQ":http://icq.com.

"Google":http://google.com

One of the most popular open source IM platforms is [[Jabber]] (also known as [[XMPP]]), this is used by [[Google Talk]], [[Gizmo Project]] and [[WengoPone]] ([[OpenWengo]]) and is widely deployed for intranet instant messaging.

Despite the fact that most IM is conducted over proprietary networks owned by Yahoo!, Microsoft or AOL/Time Warner and others, open source clients for these networks exist, most popularly [[Psi]], [[Gajim]] and [[Spark]] for [[Jabber]]/[[XMPP]] or [[Kopete]] and [[Gaim]] for multi-protocol IM (or [[Adium]] for [[OSX]] which uses [[libgaim]]).

*IM* or _Instant Messaging_ (usually referred as *IMP* or _Instant Messaging and Presence_) is a type of application for chat and presence - most popularly on proprietary networks such as "MSN Messenger":http://messenger.msn.de/ (now called "Windows Live Messenger":http://get.live.com/messenger/overview), "YahooI Messenger":http://messenger.yahoo.com/, "AIM":http://aim.com, [[Gadu-Gadu]], [[QQ]] or "ICQ":http://icq.com.

"Google":http://google.com

One of the most popular open source IM platforms is [[Jabber]] (also known as [[XMPP]]), this is used by [[Google Talk]], [[Gizmo Project]] and [[WengoPone]] ([[OpenWengo]]) and is widely deployed for intranet instant messaging.

Despite the fact that most IM is conducted over proprietary networks owned by Yahoo!, Microsoft or AOL/Time Warner and others, open source clients for these networks exist, most popularly [[Psi]], [[Gajim]] and [[Spark]] for [[Jabber]]/[[XMPP]] or [[Kopete]] and [[Gaim]] for multi-protocol IM (or [[Adium]] for [[OSX]] which uses [[libgaim]]).

"CommunicationTube - ICQ,MSN,GTalk web client":http://www.communicationtube.net/ - It’s a free web-client for the popular IM (internet messaging) networks which currently supports ICQ, MSN Messenger and Google Talk. The biggest advantage of CommunicationTube© that it’s completely web based, no software download required. It makes CommunicationTube© very convenient for people using public internet access such as internet cafe. With CommunicationTube© you can be connected to multiply IM system simultaneously from one single web-based interface. Sending and receiving messages are done without page refresh which actually minimizes internet traffic and makes manual page refresh unnecessary. CommunicationTube© based on http protocol and unlike other web-based IM’s uses only port 80 which is very useful for customers with limited web access due to firewall limitations. No ActiveX, Java applets or popup windows are being used either. CommunicationTube© is compatible with all popular browsers.