ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, created by Mirabilis, an Israeli start-up company based around Tel-Aviv. A program was foremost freed inside November, 1996, and was a number one instant messaging program which can be operate non-UNIX/Linux computers. A title ICQ occurs as play on the phrase "I seek you".

Features

ICQ allows a sending of text message with offline support, URLs, multi-user character-by-character chats, resumable file transfers, SMSes, greeting cards & sir thomas more. More features involved the searchable user directory & POP3 e-mail trend lines. Possibly though such features were processed available since about 2000, numbers of of the independent rival like AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger have failed to implement such power-user oriented features even to this day. Instead, it use at times never again towards a route of targetting a immature users by overloading sustaining colours, avatars & animations. (As well scan just about ICQ Lite/ICQ Five later on in the article)

ICQ users come identified by prices known as UIN, distributed in consecutive choose (though these are rumored there are gaps in the sequence). Freshly users come today given the UIN of run over 300,000,000, & moo cost (half a dozen digits or even less) use been auctioned in eBay by users who signed higher within ICQ's early times.

History

ICQ was founded by 5 immature Israelis: Yair Goldfinger, Arik Vardi, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir and managed by Ariel Yarnitsky.

America Online (AOL) acquired Mirabilis on June 8, 1998 for $287 Million in cash.

Within June 2004 ICQ celebrated its 300 millionth download from download.com where it remained the most popular program for 7 consecutive years.

ICQ Five, freed in Monday, February 7, 2005, was an upgrade in ICQ Lite - a macd from either the independent ICQ program that has an large addition - Xtraz, which nowadays offers games & features appealing to the immature users of the cyberspace. ICQ Lite was originally an idethe to offer a lightly users of instant messaging an guide client which was a little download & less resource-hungry for the (so) comparatively slow computers.

Other products

ICQ Pro pass off since a emergence of ICQ Lite to differentiate between them available clients. But, ever since AOL's involvement, development of ICQ Pro 2003 got profits been left abandoned, to the disappointment of seasoned users of ICQ.

Spinoffs of ICQ involved the corporate version for the work (known when ICQ Groupware), & ICQ Surf, which displayed the names of more ICQ users world health organization besides happened to exist as surfing on the equivalent web site as wise shoppers were. Each computer program come there are no elongated available to download.

Clients
AOL's OSCAR network protocol used by ICQ is proprietary, but the total of population stand created just about compatible third-person clients, including:

Adium - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN and Jabbering, for Mac OS X Ayttm - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, and Jabber centericq - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC and Jabber Easy Message (http://www.easymessage.net/) - Small instant courier (250kb), supports MSN, AOL, ICQ, & Yahoo. Fire - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, and Jabber Gaim - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Jabber & Gadu-Gadu GnomeICU (previously GtkICQ) Jabber ([http://www.jabber.com/ Official site]) / ([http://www.jabber.org/ *More competing Jabber-powered clients]) Jimm (J2ME client, previously "Mobicq") Kopete Licq mICQ Miranda IM - plugin based, supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Jabbering, Gadu-Gadu, BNet, & others Proteus - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, Yahoo Japan!, AIM, MSN, Jabber & iChat Rendezvous, for Mac OS X Trillian - supports ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, IRC, Jabber & others Yeemp - supports ICQ, AIM, and Yeemp YSM

AOL has recently begun making its ICQ computer software additional AIM-like by adding AIM Smilies, when well as introducing cross AIM/ICQ communication. Users inside ICQ come take a breath to communicate by having AIM users; yet, such capability is in beta stages.