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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of instant messenger programs and protocols used for communication between one or more people. Please see the individual products articles for further information.
| Instant messenger: | AIM | ICQ | MSN | Yahoo! | iChat | Trillian | Trillian Pro | Gaim | Miranda | Proteus | Fire | Adium | Centericq |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator | AOL | MirabilisMirabilis was the name of the Israeli company that produced ICQ ("I seek you"), which in the 1990s was the most popular form of Instant Messenger. Mirabilis was founded in 1996, and was purchased by AOL less than two years later. AOL ran ICQ and AIM ( AOL | Microsoft | Yahoo!Yahoo is an Internet portal and Web directory. It was founded by Stanford graduate students David Filo and Jerry Yang in January 1994 and incorporated in March 1995. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. According to Alexa Internet, a web | Apple ComputerApple Computer, Inc. is a Silicon Valley company based in Cupertino, California, whose main business is computer technologies. Best known for its range of Macintosh computers and, more recently, its iPod personal audio ( MP3 and otherwise) player and iTun | Cerulean StudiosCerulean Studios was founded in May of 1998 by Kevin Kurtz and Scott Werndorfer. They built a commercial multi-protocol IM program called Trillian. The first version of Trillian was released on July 1, 2000. The Cerulean Studios main office is in Connecti | Cerulean StudiosCerulean Studios was founded in May of 1998 by Kevin Kurtz and Scott Werndorfer. They built a commercial multi-protocol IM program called Trillian. The first version of Trillian was released on July 1, 2000. The Cerulean Studios main office is in Connecti | Mark SpencerMark Spencer b. April 8, 1977) is a computer engineer and is the original author of the GTK-based instant messaging client Gaim and Asterisk, an open-sourced PBX in software. Mark is the founder and CEO of Digium, Inc. Digium is an open-sourced telecommun | Martin Öberg | Defaultware | Eric Peyton | Adam Iser | Konstantin Klyagin |
| First public release date | ? | NovemberNovember is also the letter N in the NATO phonetic alphabet. November is the eleventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 30 days. From the Latin novem for " nine". It was originally the ninth month of the year in the early Roman calendar, w 1996 | ? | ? | ? | ? | September 2002 | November 1998 | 2000 | ? | ? | September 2001 | ? |
| Type | Specialist program | Specialist program | Specialist program | Specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program | Non-specialist program |
| General | |||||||||||||
| Current stable version | 5.9 | 4 | 6.2 | 6.0 (Win) 2.5.3 (Mac) | 2.1 | 0.74i | 2.0 | 1.0.3 | 0.3.3.1 | 4.07 | 1.0.4 | 0.71 (released November 1, 2004) | 4.12.0 |
| Cost | Free Adware | Free Adware | Free Adware | Free Adware | Free | Free | $25 USD | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | GPL | GPL | Proprietary | GPL | GPL | GPL |
| Network/Protocol Support | |||||||||||||
| AIM | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ICQ | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MSN Messenger | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yahoo! | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| IRC | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Jabber | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rendezvous | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Support Platforms | |||||||||||||
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Mac OS X | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| BSD | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Unix | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Features | |||||||||||||
| File transfer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | ? | Partial | Partial |
| Graphical smileys | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| In-built Games | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Voice and webcam conversations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Themes/skins | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Plugin system1 | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No |
| Third-party addons2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Instant messenger: | ICQ | AIM | MSN | Yahoo! | iChat | Trillian | Trillian Pro | Gaim | Miranda | Proteus | Fire | Adium | Centericq |