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What's New With ICQ?

© Maureen Fleury

I realize the 2000b version of ICQ was launched last year, but I was stubborn and just downloaded it a few days ago. I am a more frequent user of Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger but ICQ seems to be the best place for finding people. It's the program where instant messaging began. Not only has the functionality increased, the overall appearance of the windows has changed too.

When installing 2000b, I received a prompt asking if ICQ could check my email address book to look for people who have ICQ. It went through my book and identified people with ICQ numbers and I was able to select each name and say if it could be added to my contact list. At the bottom of the window, it gave a list of people without ICQ and I could select names for generating an ICQ invitation to join. You can also set up a scheduler where ICQ will look in your address book periodically for new contacts. This works with MS Outlook and Outlook Express. In addition, when you want to send an email to one of your contacts, ICQ can launch your Outlook email program.

When the Contact List popped up, there was an additional channel bar on the left-hand side. This allows you to get all the latest details for sports, news, music, business, travel, games, etc. Just click on the appopriate channel button and a web page appears. You can suppress the channel bar and click on an icon on your contact window if you want to access the channels at a later session.

You can now initiate or receive PC-to-PC or PC-to-Phone or Phone-to-Phone calls using ICQphone. Only the PC-to-PC service is free of charge. You must open an ICQphone Account. Please note that the PC-to-Phone service on MSN Messenger is free for calls within the United States and Canada. You can also launch other telephony programs such as MS Netmeeting, Netscape Cool Talk, or Netscape Conference and many others.

If someone on your Contact List has a cell phone with SMS (Short Messaging Service) capability, you can send and receive SMS messages to and from their cell phone or ICQ program. This feature only works with GSM technology only. You can also send messages to Wireless Pagers using ICQ. People with pagers or cells do not need to be ICQ users and you can add them to your Contact List under a "Non Contacts" section.