Early instant messaging began in the 1970s. Set up on multi user platforms like UNIX,
it was initially used to facilitate communication between the users provided if there were on the same local network.In the 1990s, due to the rising popularity of the internet, instant messaging had a major overhaul. Modern GUI-based messaging clients completely changed the way how instant messaging windows looked. On the UNIX systems, instant messaging windows were based inside a console window, however, on the new GUI-based clients, messaging windows were running as software applications. One of the more popular (or at least used to be popular) instant messaging systems of that generation was ICQ. (Wikipedia, 2007)
In fact, ICQ
was what actually sparked off the popularity of instant messaging. In november 1996, Mirablis, a company funded by four Israeli programmers, introduced ICQ, a free instant messaging utility that anyone can use. (Tyson, 2001) Basically, anyone who has a personal computer and an internet connection would have this application running. What this application does is that it shows the user who on his/her contact list is online as well, thus allowing the user to send a text message and receive a response in real time.ICQ has also paved the way for other companies to begin developing their own applications, each with their own proprietary protocol and clients. (Wikipedia, 2007) Companies like Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, have all jumped onto the bandwagon by developing their own instant messaging engines. One of the more popular ones today are AIM and MSN, with active users of 53 million and 27 million respectively worldwide. (Reimer, 2006)
Today, instant messaging is not only about text based conversations, developments on instant messaging engines have progressed to include video conferencing and file sharing. More recently, some engines are even offering VoIP (voice over IP) and desktop sharing, making the instant messaging utility even more multi functional.
The main aim of the internet is to share information and communication. (Wikipedia, 2006) with the development of instant messaging, it does just that. Instant messaging engines makes the process of file sharing alot more convenient not to mention its main purpose of communication.
Instant messaging has been around for almost as long as the internet as been around. These days, everyone is connected via the internet one way or another. More often than not, through instant messaging. In fact, the first thing many people do when they turn on their computers is to log on to instant messaging apart from checking their E-mails.
Just why do people prefer instant messaging to E-mails? For starters, instant messaging creates responses in real time. Unlike E-mails, where the message is being sent back and forth, instant messaging provides the luxury of time efficiency. Instant messaging also allows the user to see if the person that they want to correspond with is online, allowing for quicker responses. With emails, you would never know whether the other party is online at that given moment. (Tyson, 2001)
Most engines also allow the user to set an online status or away message so peers get notified whenever the user is available, busy, or away from the computer. On the other hand, people are not forced to reply immediately to incoming messages. This way, communication via instant messaging can be less intrusive than communication via phone, which is partly a reason why instant messaging is becoming more and more important in corporate environments.
To end, instant messaging has certainly changed the way we looked at the internet, especially with the increasing familiarity with two-way communication online. (Wikipedia, 2006) Personally, in hindsight that the internet draws people closer, the use of instant messaging has drawn people even closer together. In that, one can have a cheaper althernative to a real time conversation with a friend or loved one half way round the world via instant messaging. No longer is a phone number enough, in oder to stay connected, you would need to be on a instant messaging engine.
References:
Jeff Tyson (March 28, 2001). "How Instant Messaging Works". Retrieved January 25, 2007 from http://www.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging.htm
Jeremy Reimer (27 September, 2006). "Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger get together". Retrieved January 25, 2007 from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060927-7846.html
History of World Wide Web (5 September, 2006). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 25, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_World_Wide_Web&oldid=73974490
Instant Messaging (20 January, 2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 25, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Instant_messaging&oldid=103417110
5 comments:
Good insight into the world of instant messaging. I know you might have wanted to add a bit of flair, but as an academic requirement, please capitalize where required and use proper grammar. Also, nice job using appropriate screenshots. :)
kevin: I apologise for not capitalizing... Am being too used to blogging like that... I guess no habits die hard haha
Grammar wise, my grammar definately needs improvement. I will try my best to improve on it.
Thanks for the comment, it is duely noted and hopefully future posts would be better!
Kevin: One question, when referencing from Wiki, is my referencing done correctly? As in, in true APA format.
Referencing has always been trying for me, what with all the different formats. Especially more so when most of my references are from the Internet.
Please enlighten me!
Hello Jonathan, you got close with the reference. In know it's a bit of trouble, but it's a standard academics have agreed on for references.
If you notice from the History reading list in my COM125 blog post, you'll see how I cited Wikipedia. For your convenience, it should be something like this (note where punctuations belong):
History of the Internet. (2006, August 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:07, August 23, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/_blahblahblah
Oh, I nearly forgot. Referencing a wiki is a little different from a normal web page. As you know wikis can change over time and you'll want to grab the "permalink" for the exact version of the page that was published. Don't worry about this for now... I will try to mention about finding a wiki's permalink next time.
It was ok a moment ago, but I now see that your posting has reverted to small caps (perhaps by accident?). Might want to fix that before the deadline. Good work nonetheless!
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