digsby

Have you ever stopped to think how many online accounts you have? Email addresses, IM accounts, social network profiles... keeping all of them alive and updated can certainly be difficult and time-consuming.

This is why Digsby is a good option for all of us who have registered for a dozen different online services and hardly find the time to catch up with them. Being defined by their developers as an all-in-one IM client, this program is certainly much more than just a cross-network chatting tool. Besides supporting the most popular IM protocols, it also allows you to check messages in different email services and follow updates in your Facebook and Myspace profiles.

The good thing about Digsby is that it gathers all the information you need under a single interface, so that you can get a preview of who's online, how many messages you have and what's up on your favorite social sites, all in a quick look. Plus, you can configure the program to show a small floating window every time you receive a new message on any of your accounts. I especially liked the possibility to read a small text snippet for each one of my emails, mark them as read or even delete them, all of this without even having to open a browser. Unfortunately you still have to use the traditional web interface if you want to send a reply.

I also liked Digsby's configuration menu. I appreciated having tons of settings to customize and Digsby did meet my expectations, both in appearance, security, performance and general behavior. The program is very easy to configure and manage, which means you can have it up and running in no time after the installation.

Digsby's overall impression is frankly good. That said, don't forget the program is still in beta stage, which makes it a bit unstable. I had some problems when trying to enter the ICQ network and the Facebook connection didn't work properly either. Also, I missed having support for some other popular social sites like Twitter, Digg or Flickr, to name a few. Still, I'll keep my thumbs up for Digsby; it's got a lot of potential and I'm sure it'll improve a lot in future releases.

Digsby is currently in private beta. We contacted the developers and they've kindly provided us with 1,000 free invites for OnSoftware readers to test Digsby. Simply download the program and use "softonic" as your invite code during the installation process.

Oh, and don't forget to let us know what you think of the app!

The latest version of Windows Live Messenger has gotten mixed reception from users. Judging by the number of comments on Elena’s tutorial about how to uninstall Windows Live Messenger 2011, a lot of users aren’t thrilled with the changes!

You can always follow Elena’s tutorial to downgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009, but you’ve got other options as well. In fact, there are quite a few alternative programs you can use that’ll let you chat with your friends online. Some of them even give you the experience of chatting with Live Messenger without the hassle of actually having to install it!

Here are five chat programs you can try out if you want to give Windows Live Messenger the boot.

After several months of beta testing, the final version of Facebook Messenger for Windows has now been released. Facebook Messenger for Windows is the official program for Facebook that allows you to chat with your contacts from your desktop.

Facebook Messenger for Windows not only lets you communicate with your Facebook contacts but also gives you access to your news feed and message notifications giving you access to all the essential tools of the Facebook social network.

Facebook has launched a beta version of Facebook Messenger for Windows which allows you to chat with your contacts from your desktop. At the moment, it is only available to a small number of selected beta testers.

Facebook Messenger for Windows not only lets you communicate with your Facebook contacts but also gives you access to your news feed and message notifications giving you access to all the essential tools of Facebook.

The interface of Facebook Messenger for Windows is very clear and divided into two separate windows. One is dedicated to contacts and feeds like the right column of Facebook and the other opens chats. Any notifications appear as pop-ups on your desktop.

Note that although this is the first official Facebook desktop app, there are already several programs that allow you to chat with Facebook contacts including Digsby Trillian Astra, Nimbuzz and Skype.

Download Facebook Messenger for Windows