Jump to content

ICQ

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 130.15.105.243 (talk) at 16:53, 1 May 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

File:ICQ Logo.png
The ICQ Logo

ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, created by Mirabilis, an Israeli startup company based in Tel-Aviv. The first version of the program was released in November 1996. The name ICQ is a play (an oronym) on the phrase "I seek you".

Features

ICQ allows the sending of text messages with offline support, URLs, multi-user character-by-character chats, resumable file transfers, SMSes, greeting cards and more. Other features included a searchable user directory and POP3 email support. Even though such features have been available since around 2000, many of the main competitors such as AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger have failed to implement such power-user oriented features even to this day. Instead, they have targeted younger users with an avalanche of colors, avatars, and animations.

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 300,000,000, and low numbers (six digits or fewer) have been auctioned on eBay by users who signed up in ICQ's early days.[citation needed]

UIN

UIN was coined by Mirabilis, to be used as the name of the so called Universal Internet Number that each user of the ICQ instant messaging software is assigned upon registration[1][2]. Unlike most other instant messaging programs, in ICQ the only information that is permanent to a registered user is the UIN. The screen name may be changed at will, without having to re-register.

History

ICQ was developed in 1996 by Mirabilis, the creators of the first fully functional internet-wide Instant messenger comprising presence, buddy list and rapid messaging was founded by four young Israelis: Yair Goldfinger, Arik Vardi, Sefi Vigiser and Amnon Amir. After AOL bought it, it was managed by Ariel Yarnitsky and Avi Shechter.

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

On December 19, 2002, AOL Time Warner announced that ICQ had been issued a United States patent for instant messaging (USPTO Patent Number 6,449,344).[citation needed]

In June 2004 ICQ celebrated its 300 millionth download from download.com where it remained the most popular program for 7 consecutive years.[citation needed]

ICQ 5, released on Monday, February 7, 2005, was an upgrade on ICQ Lite - a divergence from the main ICQ program that has a big addition - Xtraz, which now offers games and features appealing to the younger users of the internet. ICQ Lite was originally an idea to offer the lighter users of instant messaging an alternative client which was a smaller download and less resource-hungry for the (then) relatively slow computers.

Although innovative at the start, the general trend of ICQ updates has been towards bloatware. Users have by and large migrated to the competition: MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, Skype, and Google Talk.

Other products

ICQ Pro came about since the emergence of ICQ Lite to differentiate between the two available clients. However, ever since AOL's involvement, development of ICQ Pro 2003 had effectively been left abandoned, to the disappointment of veteran users of ICQ.

Spinoffs of ICQ included a corporate version for the workplace (named ICQ Groupware), and ICQ Surf, which displayed a list of other ICQ users who also happened to be surfing on the same website as you were. Both programs are no longer available to download.

Clients

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:

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.

Films

A short film about ICQ, called (fittingly) ICQ, was directed by Greg McLean, who later wrote Wolf Creek. The film was described by its writer as a mystery/drama, and it concerns a man who while surfing the ICQ network comes across a woman whose acquaintance he could well have done without. The relationship runs the gauntlet of intrigue through to the sinister. It was released in 2001.

The short film took out the "Best Director" award in October 2001 at the International and Independent Film and Video festival in New York. On return to his home soil in Australia, McLean's film was nominated for Best Sound Design (short film) for the prestigious AFI (Australian Film Institute) awards in 2002.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.icq.com/icqtour2000b/more.html
  2. ^ http://www.icq.com/info/press/press_release2.html
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=ICQ&oldid=51065159"