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Derrick is a fan of instant messaging applications, just as I’m sure most of you are. Each of us has our own preference when it comes to an all-in-one program. Some may love Adium while others swear that Pidgin is the only way to go. However, Derrick feels strongly that the newest version of Trillian will make you want to leave other IM clients behind.

Derrick admits that he was never a fan of Trillian 3 or Trillian Astra. He feels that #3 was lacking in nearly every way… and that Astra had the same shortcomings with an interface that was seriously overdone. He says it was too busy and over-crowded, and I have to agree.

The beta for Trillian 5 was recently released into the wild, and it has been seriously improved. The first thing you’ll notice is how quickly it starts up – and how much it looks as though it was made for Windows 7. That is likely because it was designed for the newest OS from the Microsoft campus. The interface was carefully designed to integrate with your operating system.

The client is more comprehensive, with more types of feeds – including Facebook events and Twitter searches. It’s flexible and will store feeds in your contact list or system tray. Instant updates to all of your services are just one click away, which is likely why Derrick feels this is the fastest IM client he’s ever used.

Links and pictures are expanded automatically so that you don’t ever have to open a web browser if you don’t want to. You can also view things such as “likes” directly within the client, as well as being able to read and write comments.

In past versions of this IM client, users had issues receiving files coming from friends using different clients, and not being able to video conference with people who weren’t also using Trillian. With this new version, that is no longer an issue. Derrick reports that he was easily able to video conference with a friend of his who was using Digsby.

Trillian can connect you to AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo, Google Chat, Facebook Chat, Jabber, Skype and more. It even has support for Foursquare and LinkedIn! There’s a comprehensive library of plugins, skins and skin packs. This lets you customize Trillian in whatever way suits you best.

Going by what Derrick has shown us, this Alpha release is definitely worth a try – and one to watch grow into full release. I have a feeling many of you will be making a switch (or upgrade) to this as soon as it’s available.

Thanks, Derrick, for a fantastic screencast.

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Trillian 5 for Instant Messaging

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What do you use for your default instant messenger? There are so many options out there, it’s hard to choose since everyone is on different clients. That’s when you should check out an all-in-one. There are several of them out there that work well. Some people prefer Trillian. I use Adium on OS X. There’s one for Windows called Digsby that I can’t stand… but hey, others like it!

There’s a new cross-platform all-in-one instant messaging client available though. Instantbird works quite well on all three main operating systems out there. Best of all, it runs off the Mozilla engine!! Nice, eh?

With Instantbird, you can chat on several different IM environments all at once: Yahoo, AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, IRC, QQ and XMPP! Yep… IRC. That means you can come chat with us in our live chat room right from within Instantbird!

Did I mention that this client is free as well? The interface is unobtrusive… and very clean. It’s there to let you instant message, and that’s about it. I like that. I get so tired of clients that try to make themselves “look good”… and see them fail miserably.

Download Instantbird and check it out for yourself today. You might just find yourself making a permanent switch.

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What All-in-one Instant Messenger Should You Use?

I screwed up a Gmail contacts import the other day, thinking that I could resolve the problem by deleting my contact list and then re-importing it… but that’s not the case.

When I deleted the contacts in my Gmail address book, my Google Talk connections to them also disappeared. There’s absolutely no way to get those back – at least, not without jumping through flaming hoops first. I either have to reauthorize each one of my known Google Talk contacts (even though there are people in my address book who aren’t on Google Talk / Jabber), or I have to sort through the list and remember the people who had Google Talk.

You can set Gmail to “Automatically allow people I communicate with often to chat with me and see when I’m online,” but that doesn’t work well if they were just added / re-added to your address book. The alternative is to set Gmail to “Only allow people that I’ve explicitly approved to chat with me and see when I’m online.” That’s not what I want.

Or, I have to “spam” my contacts and add them one-by-one – and if they don’t have a gmail address, Google Talk will force itself to send them an invite. This is maddening.

I want Gmail to either send reauthorizations to my Google Talk “open” contacts, or enable them to show up in my Google Talk contact list if they’ve already authorized me as a friend on their end. Until then, I’m stuck with “no friends” in Google Talk.

Google Talk (Gmail) Contacts and Friends Lost

Does anybody out there use Google’s Hello? Hello!? Yeah, Hello – the photo-sharing IM service that integrates seamlessly with Picasa and Google’s Blogger service. Here’s the problem I have with Hello: none of my friends use it. My real question is: why isn’t Picasa pushing people to use Google Talk, instead – and why isn’t Google Talk incorporating Hello technology? Argh.

Google to Google, Dust to Dust