Moving on Up

Hello everyone. This is just a brief post to let everyone know that I will be moving over to Google Talk as my instant messaging client exclusively.

My current AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) account 'threeohclock' is going to be retired after I send a mass message tonight repeating what I am saying here. Also, my (very) old ICQ handle will be greyed out likely forever, so don't bother leaving messages for '1906849'.

My new IM address is 'datavortex@gmail.com' on Talk. Please go ahead and add me, and let me know who you are if your handle is changing.

If you haven't yet tried Google Talk, you really should. It's an open protocol (Jabber), and not proprietary like AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN. This alone is enough to make it superior, but its interopibility, horde of great clients for every O.S., extensive feature set including service transports, and the slick look of the client that's built into the desktop product make this the indisputable champion of desktop messaging. If you don't know what XMPP or Jabber is and why it is so great, or if this all sounds like gibberish to you, check it out here. Basically it is simply more robust, more secure, more open, more extensible, friendlier, free (and free of ads), and gives you avenues for other free communication (like the free phone calls in the VoIP package in Talk).


Of course, the best benefit is that you can still talk to me. :)