ICQ

ICQ is an instant messaging computer program created by Mirabilis in the late 1990s. The name ICQ is a play on the phrase "I seek you".

ICQ allows the sending of text messages, URLs, multi-user chats, file transfers, greeting cards and more.

ICQ users are identified by numbers called UIN, distributed in sequential order (though it is rumored there are gaps in the sequence). New users are now given a UIN of well over 100,000,000, and low numbers (six digits or less) have been auctioned on eBay by users who signed up in ICQ's early days.

AOL acquired Mirabilis and ICQ in 1998. AOL's OSCAR network protocol used by ICQ is proprietary, but a number of people have created more or less compatible third-party clients, including:

centericq - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC and Jabber
Fire - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, and Jabber
Gaim - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Jabber and Gadu-Gadu
GtkICQ
Licq
mICQ
Miranda IM - plugin based, supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, BNet, and others
Trillian - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Jabber and others
YSM

A rather complete list of ICQ clones is listed at the ICQ protocol page listed below.

The Instant Messaging community wishes to remove the proprietary protocol of IMs like ICQ and create a single instant messaging format, called Unified Instant Messaging under the IPv6 Protocol, involving AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo!.

AOL has recently begun making its ICQ software more AIM-like by adding AIM Smilies, as well as introducing cross AIM/ICQ communication. Users on ICQ are able to communicate with AIM users, however such capability is in beta stages.

External Links

The Official ICQ Website
Press release announcing the acquisition of ICQ by AOL
The AOL Website
ICQ protocol database
Unified Instant Messaging over IPv6: A brief introduction on Instant Messaging and its products, followed by a description of some Peer-to-Peer systems and platforms. Then the IETF standards on Instant Messaging are presented. Finally, a framework for Agent-based Unified Instant Messaging over IPv6 is proposed.