You’ve just got the hang of email and surfing the net, and
suddenly someone asks if they can ‘IM’ you. You haven’t got a
clue what they’re on about! Don’t worry, we can explain all. The
internet has clearly made near-instantaneous communication a
very easy thing to achieve. Voice and video communication is
relatively simple and people no longer ask whether you have an
email address, they assume you have one and ask what it is. How
it works Using instant messaging (IM) is simple. Go to whichever
IM service you want on the web, and sign up for an account. You
can now send instant messages to anyone who is online at the
same time. Use a company you trust - ones that have been around
as long as, say, Microsoft and AOL, aren’t going to abuse your
details. They will allow you to download a piece of ’client’
software, which is like a web browser just for IM. It shows you
the messages and gives you a box into which you can type your
reply. It then works like an extension of texting on the phone,
but with a proper key