Instant Messaging is a good way for people to keep in touch without having to call, or wait for the response that email imposes. However, there is no real IM standard. It would be nice if providers could interoperate, or if Jabber was more popular where your IM ID was your email address.
To make life simpler for people, Google Talk, Skype, and QIK all uses fsp412. Yahoo Messenger because it has been a big red target for SPAMmers, but people seem to still love to use it, I have two IDs. The first one is frank.pilone. This ID is logged in with Pidgin which for some reason doesn’t seem to accept attachments. Any one is able to IM me on this ID, and I do get a lot of IM SPAM. However, this ID will not be given out so much any longer – instead opting for fsp_412. This ID uses Y! Messenger, and I have it set so only those accepted can IM me. Therefore if I don’t know your ID, and it’s not accepted in, you must use frank.pilone to IM me.
Windows Live Services are no longer used for new people to IM with. I’ve had problems with Windows Live, and only now use if for people who don’t use other options that I already knew. New people will have to rely on other services. ICQ is no longer a value, and I don’t even remember my number, nor do I care. The same applies to AIM.