Social networking can get and be troublesome. Staying in contact with so many friends and instant messaging clients can be troublesome. In the past I have been using Trillian. I was also anxiously waiting for Trillian Astra. Recently I have been having issues with receiving downloads from others and even login issues. I then started to research on some software that does what Trillian does but can also be a less load on my PC.
For a while I was using Meebo, a web base IM client. This was great because I do not need download anything on a PC and I can login anywhere. I love things that are centralize. Meebo had great features, but I wanted some features Trillian had and I still looked and researched for a more perfect app that would fit my needs.
I found Digsby.com by mistake, I was trying to receive a file from one of my friends and he asked if I used "Trillian," I simply just said yes. He recommended to get Digsby... I was very hesitant because I got so use to Trillian and enjoyed using it alot. The simplicity of it just gave me ease of use to check my email and have all my IM friends in one login.
I decided to just read about Digsby and found it to be a web base 'external' application - meaning it connects via the internet and grabs the user's information via their central server. To explain it better, lets say I added 3 new friends on my laptop, these 3 friends would not be added on my IM client on my other PCs. The reason for this is because the IM client saves your buddy list on your physical PC and not on the server. Well Digsby fixes this and saves the buddy list on their server. So if you add 3 new friends on 1 pc it will also be updated on all your other PCs once you login.
This is great because sometimes when I travel, I add new contacts and I wouldn't want to re add them later on my desktop PC when I get home. This way I can just add them on my laptop, get it stored on the Digsby server, re uploaded on my other PCs I login with Digsby already installed.
One of the best things I like is the social network integration, especially with Facebook. I like this a lot because I do not need to be logged into Facebook all day to just have the Facebook chat client open. I can just browse Facebook when I need to and exit when I need to. Digsby keeps me logged into Facebook and into their Facebook Chat Client. Another social network is Twitter. I use to use twhirl until Digsby took over. One application to log into my email, IM services, and social networks. This is one of the best versatile programs out there. This definitely beats trillian.
Disgby is always being worked on and always being updated, which is a good thing. It auto updates itself all the time just incase AIM or Yahoo Messenger changes their chat engines. They make sure they are on top of things and will notify you of changes.
Straight from the Digsby:
Chat Services
- One combined buddy list for all your AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat Accounts.
- Manage multiple conversations with tabbed conversation windows. You can drag tabs out into their own windows for important conversations.
- Rename contacts with an alias so you don't have to remember buddy names like 'giantsfan123'.
- If one of your friends has more than one IM account you can combine them into a single merged contact to eliminate duplicate buddies.
- Send your friends SMS messages right from the IM window.
- The InfoBox lets you check everyone's status message and profile just by moving your mouse down the list.
- Changing your status has never been easier. just one click right on the buddy list!
- Multitask while you chat. Minimize the IM window and you see popups of new IM's. Best of all, you can reply right from the popup and get back to what you were doing.
- Log conversation history and find the information you need our search-enabled log viewer.
eMail Services
- Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby.
- Get popup notifications when new email arrives. Clicking a popup takes you right to the message with auto-login into webmail accounts.
- The email InfoBox gives you a snapshot of your unread messages with just one click
- Perform actions such as "Mark as Read" or "Report Spam" right from the email InfoBox.
- Send emails to your friends right from the IM window. The email is sent directly from any account digsby is tracking for you.
Social Networking
- Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace account (other network support coming soon).
- Receive alerts of events such as new friend requests, messages, group invites, etc.
- The social network InfoBox gives you a real time NewsFeed of what your friends are up to. Everything from new photos, to status updates, to upcoming birthdays is just a click away.
- Set your Facebook and Twitter status right from Digsby.
Read more about Digsby and download Disgby!