For some time now people with computers have been using a new form of communication – instant messaging. It’s like sending a text message, just without the cost! This month we find out how you can join in this rapidly growing new form of communication..
There are a number of ways in which we can communicate in the modern world, we are used to using the telephone (landline or mobile) to communicate, we use text messaging to send short messages to each other, we send billions of emails every day, in fact, according to IDC (International Data Corporation), we send around 62 billion emails daily, however as far as I can see, most of them seem to be selling Viagra!
For some time now people with computers have been using another form of communication – instant messaging.
It’s like sending a text message, just without the cost!
To participate and send instant messages to your friends you will need to have installed some instant messaging software, the two most commonly used are:
– Microsoft’s “MSN Live”
– Yahoo’s “Yahoo Messenger”
Of course there are a host of others available but the good thing about these 2 is that they will accept messages from each other, so if you setup MSN Live and your friend has Yahoo Messenger, then you can still send each other messages.
Both Yahoo and MSN have the ability to be used for phone conferencing (if you have a microphone and speakers, or a headset) or even video conferencing (if you have a web cam), do bear in mind however that this functionality works best with a broadband connection, if you are lucky enough to have broadband then communicating with the grandkids back in the UK doesn’t have to be restricted to the phone calls – and the best of it is that its free!
Both MSN Live and Yahoo Messenger can be downloaded from the Internet, the links to each are above, they are simple to download and install and have easy to follow instructions – as always, ensure that your antivirus is always up to date before you connect to the Internet and remember you dont need to set up both, just the one you would prefer to use.