Instant Messengers

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With the internet getting more a part of our lives every day, instant messengers have become almost as much a neccessary means of communication as the telephone - we talk to all of our friends there, colleagues at work, keep in touch with relatives... eventually we will be using the internet to do all of our communication it seems, especially with the advent of Skype messenger and similar messengers, that allow you to speak voice to voice for free. ICQ was once very popular but is now less used, and many others have had their vogue. Now it's necessary to use several messengers so that we can keep in touch with all of our contacts, who all seem to use different messengers! Thankfully, some programs have been designed to combine the different services into one program, such as Trillian or Adium, and they have made communication much easier. Personally, I use Adium, and I have contacts on AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and MSN. I have tried others, but never found a reason to stay using them, while these have proved very useful. What are your preferences for Instant Messaging? What causes you to continue using a service or discontinue using one? Are there any you avoid?