Best IM Feature - Digsby
About the Best IM Reader Survey 2008
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
On March 21, 2008, IM on About.com asked readers to e-mail their nominations for their favorite instant messengers in six categories: Best IM Experience, Most Improved IM, Best Mac IM, Best Third-Party IM, Best Feature and Developer(s) of the Year.
After more than 200 e-mailed nominations from users around the globe, ten IM clients were named nominees of the first IM Best Awards reader's survey.
A ten-day voting period began April 9 in the unscientific survey, with voters selecting nominees via online ballot on our website.
After more than 22,000 votes cast, we are proud to present this year's winners of the 2008 IM Best Awards--the best, brightest and most efficient clients of the year! Click on the links below to reveal this year's list of our reader's favorite instant messengers!
Best IM Experience - Yahoo! Messenger 9.0
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
One of the most competitive categories in our first IM reader's survey, this year's Best IM Experience title was awarded to a client that has been on the scene almost as long as IM itself. In 2008, Yahoo! Messenger released its ninth incarnation, boasting a number of improvements and bug fixes.
For what its worth, Yahoo!
Messenger 9.0 delivers a pretty smooth experience from start to finish. The recent addition of access to contacts on Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) makes Yahoo! pretty strong competition for the AIM/ICQ client and other standalone single protocol clients; in fact, if I were the others, I would take a page from the Yahoo! book about what is right with their client, including the strong deliverance of experience-making features, such as Yahoo’ new in-line media player, new voice call features and a wide-range of new personalization options. Download Yahoo! Messenger for free. Features support for Windows Vista.
Most Improved IM - Digsby
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
Garnering hype over its official beta release, Digsby continues to gain coverage as one of the most innovative instant messaging products in the industry; one such reason, as voters attested to in this year's IM Best Awards, are the multiple improvements made build over build that help deliver a stronger IM presentation.
Part social networking tool, part IM and 100 percent personality-driven, dotSyntax's new client's major focus is simplifying our Internet-driven lifestyle by wrangling all our online pastimes together; whether you are checking e-mail, chatting with contacts on AIM, Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger, etc., or checking our friends on MySpace or Facebook, Digsby is the new way to do all of that--and more. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Best Mac Instant Messenger - Adium
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
Considered one of the most beautiful in addition to one of the most functional, Adium 1.2 packs brains and beauty for the Mac platform.
As a client, Mac users couldn’t ask for more; in addition to message tabbing, themed windows and a laundry load of personalization options which simplify Adium, it also includes a larger range of support from AIM and Yahoo!
to Novell and QQ. Far more efficient than iChat, Mac’s native IM, Adium has so few issues to speak of that I cannot even think of any current problems to write about.
As one user wrote when nominating Adium, “Mac users do not know real IM freedom until they have experienced IM with Adium.” Download Adium for free.
Best Third-Party Instant Messenger - Digsby
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
Whether their developers are busy churning out another build moments after completing another or simply inspiring the IM industry as to the great things that can be achieved by thinking about the end user first, Digsby has earned the right to call itself Best Third-Party IM, as awarded by our readers in this year's IM Best Awards.
With the debut of this new client, new bars have been set across the board that will have some more veteran, corporately developed IMs taking notice; in addition to overall client efficiency (speed, user friendliness), the packaging of all our Internet activities within one strong application (IM, e-mail and social networking) and a bevy of personalization options will find newfound importance among IM users in the future. In the fast-paced society we live in, time is short and our list of things to do--in addition to keeping in touch with family and friends--is growing longer all the time. dotSyntax could have produced just another IM to clog the World Wide Web with, but instead did something different: they thought about us, our personalities, how we use of time online and voila! The most impressive new IM was born. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
In the last year, the IM industry has seen a major shift towards merging instant messengers with the newest of Gen-Y trends: Social Networking. With millions of users logging on each day to sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and others, this integration plan not only helps further connect social networking users but has helped spawn a second-generation renaissance among IM clients.
However, only one client comes close to offering the most perfect blend of IM and SN, and that's Digsby. In addition to allowing access to all your social networking pals, Digsby users can receive alerts to new messages and contact requests, set status messages for MySpace and Facebook in the client’s main window and view up-to-the-minute buddy info, photos and more through the InfoBox. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
With six nominations and now four titles in the first-ever IM Best Awards reader survey, dotSyntax, developers of Digsby, have just one question ahead of them in the next year: How do we take a near-perfect client and make it even better?
After receiving more than 170 nominations written by Digsby users, three items surfaced as important to a large segment of the IM population: efficiency (in terms of speed/design of the end product AND time between client releases), serious evaluation of our needs and a product that is fun to use.
Clearly, Digsby and its developers at dotSyntax were listening.
In addition to building a strong IM, they packed it with features and options that would help us enjoy things we are already doing, like social networking and sending e-mail. The developers also adopted a work ethic which allowed them to really listen to the needs of the consumer, build at a fast clip and turn around an improved product faster than many other clients out there. And, ultimately, they made Digsby fun to use, because the end user understood and believed they were getting a very valuable tool--and a team behind that tool dedicated to making things happen for the consumer.
These developers stood up for their users, choosing innovation over a simple re-treatment of what the big boys were doing; in response, their users stood up for them to help get their client, Digsby, titles in four separate categories. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
On March 21, 2008, IM on About.com asked readers to e-mail their nominations for their favorite instant messengers in six categories: Best IM Experience, Most Improved IM, Best Mac IM, Best Third-Party IM, Best Feature and Developer(s) of the Year.
After more than 200 e-mailed nominations from users around the globe, ten IM clients were named nominees of the first IM Best Awards reader's survey.
A ten-day voting period began April 9 in the unscientific survey, with voters selecting nominees via online ballot on our website.
After more than 22,000 votes cast, we are proud to present this year's winners of the 2008 IM Best Awards--the best, brightest and most efficient clients of the year! Click on the links below to reveal this year's list of our reader's favorite instant messengers!
Best IM Experience - Yahoo! Messenger 9.0
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
One of the most competitive categories in our first IM reader's survey, this year's Best IM Experience title was awarded to a client that has been on the scene almost as long as IM itself. In 2008, Yahoo! Messenger released its ninth incarnation, boasting a number of improvements and bug fixes.
For what its worth, Yahoo!
Messenger 9.0 delivers a pretty smooth experience from start to finish. The recent addition of access to contacts on Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) makes Yahoo! pretty strong competition for the AIM/ICQ client and other standalone single protocol clients; in fact, if I were the others, I would take a page from the Yahoo! book about what is right with their client, including the strong deliverance of experience-making features, such as Yahoo’ new in-line media player, new voice call features and a wide-range of new personalization options. Download Yahoo! Messenger for free. Features support for Windows Vista.
Guide’s Comments
I was surprised just how competitive this title was from the start of voting; towards the end, however, it appeared to be a clear race between third-party newcomer Digsby (looking to pick up its fourth IM Best Award title) versus the venerable Yahoo! Messenger. Experience (as in length of service) seemed to be a factor in choosing which product to award for overall experience; nine versions later, our readers still believe Yahoo! is a viable choice for instant messaging.How Readers Voted
- Digsby 35 percent (3,317 votes)
- Meebo Two percent (208 votes)
- Yahoo! 60 percent (5,590 votes)
- Windows Live Messenger One percent (125 votes)
Most Improved IM - Digsby
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
Garnering hype over its official beta release, Digsby continues to gain coverage as one of the most innovative instant messaging products in the industry; one such reason, as voters attested to in this year's IM Best Awards, are the multiple improvements made build over build that help deliver a stronger IM presentation.
Part social networking tool, part IM and 100 percent personality-driven, dotSyntax's new client's major focus is simplifying our Internet-driven lifestyle by wrangling all our online pastimes together; whether you are checking e-mail, chatting with contacts on AIM, Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger, etc., or checking our friends on MySpace or Facebook, Digsby is the new way to do all of that--and more. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Guide's Comments
Digsby's win was guided by a strong base of believers--not just users--as can be attested by the multiple comments this site and a number of other blogs have received regarding the client. I was not thoroughly surprised by Disgby's win of the Most Improved IM category, because as far as clients go, dotSyntax is able to churn out builds in quick succession, helping to meet the needs of their users in faster order. If there is one thing other IMs could learn, its adopting Digsby's love of efficiency--from the way their product operates down to the very work ethic their developers use to make this client such a success.How Readers Voted
- Coccinella 12 percent (297 votes)
- Digsby 72 percent (1734 votes)
- Meebo Three percent (88 votes)
- Pidgin 11 percent (278 votes)
Best Mac Instant Messenger - Adium
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
Considered one of the most beautiful in addition to one of the most functional, Adium 1.2 packs brains and beauty for the Mac platform.
As a client, Mac users couldn’t ask for more; in addition to message tabbing, themed windows and a laundry load of personalization options which simplify Adium, it also includes a larger range of support from AIM and Yahoo!
to Novell and QQ. Far more efficient than iChat, Mac’s native IM, Adium has so few issues to speak of that I cannot even think of any current problems to write about.
As one user wrote when nominating Adium, “Mac users do not know real IM freedom until they have experienced IM with Adium.” Download Adium for free.
Guide's Comments
Simply put, Adium is to Mac as Digsby is to Windows platform. If there was ever a client for Mac with the “IT” factor, it’s Adium; reading the comments on the client’s blog—and even that of Yahoo! Messenger for Mac—about this competition, it became abundantly clear why Adium was chosen in the end: overall user experience and the absence of major bugs means less troubleshooting and more instant messaging.How Readers Voted
- Adium 59 percent (1195 votes)
- iChat Five percent (105 votes)
- Yahoo! 35 percent (710 votes)
Best Third-Party Instant Messenger - Digsby
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
Whether their developers are busy churning out another build moments after completing another or simply inspiring the IM industry as to the great things that can be achieved by thinking about the end user first, Digsby has earned the right to call itself Best Third-Party IM, as awarded by our readers in this year's IM Best Awards.
With the debut of this new client, new bars have been set across the board that will have some more veteran, corporately developed IMs taking notice; in addition to overall client efficiency (speed, user friendliness), the packaging of all our Internet activities within one strong application (IM, e-mail and social networking) and a bevy of personalization options will find newfound importance among IM users in the future. In the fast-paced society we live in, time is short and our list of things to do--in addition to keeping in touch with family and friends--is growing longer all the time. dotSyntax could have produced just another IM to clog the World Wide Web with, but instead did something different: they thought about us, our personalities, how we use of time online and voila! The most impressive new IM was born. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Guide's Comments
While I have a sincere love for every single IM, I will say I am one of many joining the 'Digsby Nation'--a community of IM users finding great used of this client. I have been thoroughly impressed with how efficient the application operates and what it has meant for my own IM chats.How Readers Voted
- Adium 27 percent (808 votes)
- Digsby 65 percent (1893 votes)
- Meebo Two percent (60 votes)
- Miranda One percent (31 votes)
- Pidgin Three percent (112 votes)
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
In the last year, the IM industry has seen a major shift towards merging instant messengers with the newest of Gen-Y trends: Social Networking. With millions of users logging on each day to sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and others, this integration plan not only helps further connect social networking users but has helped spawn a second-generation renaissance among IM clients.
However, only one client comes close to offering the most perfect blend of IM and SN, and that's Digsby. In addition to allowing access to all your social networking pals, Digsby users can receive alerts to new messages and contact requests, set status messages for MySpace and Facebook in the client’s main window and view up-to-the-minute buddy info, photos and more through the InfoBox. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
Guide's Comments
As I mentioned earlier, the social networking-IM component of Digsby is one of the many ways this application is making time online more efficient; instead of opening a separate browser to check up on my social networking sites, then tabbing separate windows for MySpace and Facebook (while switching back to my instant messenger of choice), I can now use Digsby. Yes, it can be that simple.How Readers Voted
- In-Line Media Player, Yahoo! 38 percent (1129 votes)
- Off the Record Plugin, Digsby Six percent (182 votes)
- Social Networking Integration, Digsby 50 percent (1481 votes)
- IM to Text Capabilities, multiple clients Four percent (134 votes)
Cast Your Vote NOW for the 2009 Best IM Awards on About.com!Submit Your Ballot Now.
With six nominations and now four titles in the first-ever IM Best Awards reader survey, dotSyntax, developers of Digsby, have just one question ahead of them in the next year: How do we take a near-perfect client and make it even better?
After receiving more than 170 nominations written by Digsby users, three items surfaced as important to a large segment of the IM population: efficiency (in terms of speed/design of the end product AND time between client releases), serious evaluation of our needs and a product that is fun to use.
Clearly, Digsby and its developers at dotSyntax were listening.
In addition to building a strong IM, they packed it with features and options that would help us enjoy things we are already doing, like social networking and sending e-mail. The developers also adopted a work ethic which allowed them to really listen to the needs of the consumer, build at a fast clip and turn around an improved product faster than many other clients out there. And, ultimately, they made Digsby fun to use, because the end user understood and believed they were getting a very valuable tool--and a team behind that tool dedicated to making things happen for the consumer.
These developers stood up for their users, choosing innovation over a simple re-treatment of what the big boys were doing; in response, their users stood up for them to help get their client, Digsby, titles in four separate categories. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
How Readers Voted
- dotSyntax, for Digsby 73 percent (1730 votes)
- Evan Schoenberg and Team Adium, for Adium 23 percent (556 votes)
- Mats Bengtsson, for Coccinella 0 percent (13 votes)
- Team Meebo, for Meebo Two percent (62 votes)
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