Pagers
and "Buddy lists"
If
you find traditional chat rooms a bit chaotic, another increasingly
popular form of real-time chat software is pagers and instant messaging
programs such as:
-
(a pun on "I seek you") or
-
Basically
you compile a "buddy list" of friends and colleagues who
also have the software, and ICQ or Instant Messenger will tell you
you when any of them is connected to the Internet. Then you can
send them real-time messages that instantly pop up on their desktop.
Both programs allow you to chat privately with them.
Pagers
are a lot of fun, and very easy to use, but they really only make
sense if both you and your pager "buddies" are both online
a lot (and, obviously, online at the same time).
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