Pidgin: The Universal Instant Messenger

Pidgin Review 

What does this tool do: Allows you to communicate through many different instant messaging accounts, even though you are signed up for only one.  

Cost: Free

Who Needs It: If you need to be in quick communication with many different team members, family, friends, employees…this is a great tool.

Info Page:   http://www.pidgin.im/

Comments: 

Never thought we would see the day, but email has already become a ponderous burden for many.  When you realize that now you can send instant communication through an IM client (GoogleTalk, ICQ, Yahoo, AIM and many others), the task of opening email windows to compose and send missives is sooo yesterday. Instant Messaging clients show when your friends or colleagues are on-line, so you can have a direct line to their desktop or phone. But the problem for “instant messagers” has been that if you signed up for GoogleTalk, you couldn’t communicate with other people who signed up for MSN or IRC or Zephyr. Now you can.  Pidgin will allow you to communicate freely among many (but not all) Instant Message interfaces. If you want immediate contact with your business, family or social crowd, this tool is worth looking at.