Advertising helps free products and sites stay free. Of course they can be annoying, but you have to understand that without them products and websites will soon run out of fire-power.

However, Digsby the multi-protocol instant messenger is now allowing users to opt-out of ads. Yes, the ads are actually optional. The options for disabling ads is available in the latest build 86. So if you have been annoyed with the ads, you can simply go ahead and disable it by going to Options -> Conversations.

Yahoo has released a new beta of their popular desktop IM chat software, Yahoo Messenger 11. The new version of Yahoo messenger allows you to play games with friends including several popular ones from Zynga.

Yahoo Messenger 11 beta is now available for downloads and it includes social gaming. Yahoo had become more serious about the social gaming phenomenon when they partnered with Zynga to bring the popular Facebook game Farmville to the Yahoo network. Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta will include games such as Fishville and Mafia Wars from Zynga; Balloono, Pool and Draw My Thing from OMGPOP; and Happy Harvest and Happy Manor from Elex.

In addition to social gaming, Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta will also allow you to manage all your social networks from one place, including Twitter and Facebook. Users can download the beta version of Yahoo Messenger 11 from here.

Skype has launched a new version, Skype 5.0, which has direction integration with Facebook and a Group Video calling feature. Skype users will now be able to view their Facebook News Feed in Skype along with the ability to use their Facebook phonebook to make calls to people.

Skype will now allow users to view their Facebook news feed, post updates to Facebook, comment and like friends updates, call and SMS Facebook friends and make a free Skype call if your Facebook friend is also using Skype.

In addition to that, Facebook has also launched a new Group Video Calling feature; which is currently in open beta, and will allow users to call several family and friends at once. This is something similar to a group voice chat, except it will also include videos now.

You can download Skype 5.0 for your PC from here, or read more about the latest version at the official Skype blog. Also watch a video of Skype for Windows in action in the embedded video above.

The Yahoo Messenger team has released a new update to YM 10 (v10.0.0.1241) with bug fixes and other stability updates.

The major change in Yahoo Messenger 10 enhances the stability and performance of the new video call feature, it also improves the video calling features on PCs which run Windows 7.

Other than the above changes no other change log is available right now. If you have never used Yahoo Messenger 10, you can visit our earlier review of YM 10.

If you are looking to download the direct/standalone installer of Yahoo Messenger 10, visit this link (.exe file download will begin). If you prefer to use the web installer you can download YM 10 from here.

The ICQ messenger is probably one of the most oldest instant messaging tool and service which still exists. However, instant messaging is no longer just about chatting with friends. Several IM clients like Yahoo Messenger 10, Windows Live Messenger and Digsby have made that jump to add features which support social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The team behind ICQ have now released a new version, ICQ 7, which easily integrates with your Facebook and Twitter account. This release came three years after the release of ICQ 6 beta, which is a long time considering that the way we communicate has changed since then.

New Features in ICQ 7

• Integration with Feeds from social networking sites including: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr 
• Track and keep tabs on your online activity
• Easily Share pictures with your friends on ICQ
• Import contacts from other accounts
• More personalization options etc.

Download ICQ 7 [via Download Squad]

Have you ever been in a web chat with a person who does not understand your language, or whose language you don’t? Most likely it would not be the case, but you would still try to converse with someone, even if you did not know their language fluently.

Skype Translate is a handy utility, which will allow you to translate your Skype chat in real-time. Skype Translate works 2 ways.

• It will allow you to type text in your language and then automatically translate into the recipients language.
• It will automatically translate the what your friends type into your language.

Think of Skype Translate as your personal Translator. Conversing with people from other languages is tough, however this makes it a bit easy, if not more fun.

Watch a video of Skype Translate in action.

Download Skype Translate

Windows Live Messenger is a very popular instant messenger from Microsoft. It provides users with lots of options to customize the look and feel of the IM. However, it still does not provide users with a lot of features.

Messenger Plus! Live is a WLM add-on which enhances your experience by providing you with tons of customization options, including skin messenger to change the complete look and feel of WLM, custom emotion sounds and formatting options, organized history of your chat logs, and tons of scripts that are built using their platform.

Messenger Plus! Live also allows you to quickly lock your messenger Window using shortcut keys and chat with several contacts using a tabbed interface.

Techie Buzz Verdict

If you are a Windows Live Messenger user, this is a must download. It adds tons of features, which makes instant messaging more fun.

P.S. Keep an eye on the installation screens, the software will change your browser home page and install a Ask.com toolbar, if you do not unselect the options during installation.

Techie Buzz Rating: 2.5/5 (Good)

Download Messenger Plus! Live

Google Talk is predominantly used for its simple and fast interface as well as its unobtrusive notifications. Moreover, it now supports voice chat and video calling as well making it one of the best featured chat clients on the internet.

However, there is a side to it that most people do not know much about it is actually a Jabber/XMPP protocol using chat client and there are a variety of chat bots for this platform. Listed are five very useful bots that transform Google Talk into a powerhouse.

1. Translation Bot: This offering from Google Translate turns your IM client into a ready-to-go translation service. All you need to add is the correct bot such as en2hi@bot.talk.google.com (for English to Hindi), or perhaps an English to German bot de2en@bot.talk.google.com and start sending it the translation requests. Although this feature is not one hundred percent accurate, it is still a highly useful feature for all those users who need to translate small pieces of text on a daily basis. The full list of translation bots contains a lot more bots in other languages as well.
2. Ping.fm: This all-in-one bot sends messages to 40 social networking websites supported by it including status updates on Facebook, tweets to Twitter (obviously!), microblog posts to Tumblr and other fun features. Best of all, this messaging system works right from your IM client and is completely free. Head over to Ping.fm’s site and sign up for all of its features and the IM chat bot!
3. Meshly: This link site has an IM client! All you need to do is add their chat bot meshly@gmail.com to your friend-list and you are good to go. It works completely off IM clients and you can also add categories, tags and even a short description with the IM message you send.
4. Aardvark: This startup is something of a mashup of Yahoo! Answers and Instant Messaging. Ask a question to the bot, and based on its algorithms it will compute its own tag (or you could give it a few) and it will ask the right people your question and you will get an answer shortly you may also receive questions based on the topics you like. This brilliant idea works very well and you almost always get a useful answer. Sign up for its bot!
5. Askme.IM: This site is dedicated to developer chat bots from India. From live cricket scores (instacricket@askme.im) to movie reviews (movies@askme.im) to even pending criminal cases against sitting Indian parliamentarians (nc@askme.im) this website has quite a few bots that work very well with Google Talk and are sometimes very useful on the go.

Editor’s Note: If you are looking to find dictionary meaning don’t forget to add our exclusive dictionary bot to your Google Talk friend list you can learn more about our exclusive Dictionary Lookup Bot for IM. If you are on Twitter, don’t forget to add @twitlookup to your friend list, it allows you to find dictionary meanings, get weather updates and more without leaving twitter, learn more about Twit Lookup.

What is Digsby

If you are not yet aware, Digsby is a wonderful applications that lets you combine the powers of Social Networking, IM and emails into a single application. For all socially networked souls in this Web 2.0 era, Digsby is like a cool breeze. It allows you to manage multiple clients and services from a single application. A big time saver.

But, what is BAD about Digsby

But, while I was installing Digsby on a friend’s computer recently, I noticed that Digsby has changed their installer and the new installer is just full of bad applications, all trying to have a share of your mindspace.

image credit: downloadsquad

As soon as you start installing Digsby, you will be presented with a barrage, as many as half a dozen, of applications, which will try to control your homepage, your default search engines, your search error page, and will also track your search patterns to suggest you shopping links.

After digging a bit, I also came to know that they are engaged in more than all this. Thanks Aaron.

If you think this is bad, you should check out their new ‘help digsby do research’ option that’s buried in their menu structure and ENABLED BY DEFAULT. This allows your computer to join a computational botnet that does commercial work that the Digsby team gets paid for (think folding@home for money). Notice your laptop fan whirring away unexpectedly? You’re probably doing protein analysis for some drug company. Totally shady. I’m dropping Digsby like a hot potato, I’ve lost all trust in the developers if they somehow think this is ‘okay’.

C’mon Digsby, that is too much.

Having said that, I acknowledge that it absolutely fair on the part of developers of Digsby to expect to earn some money from a wonderful application. I fully support them here.

But I think there are other better and more respectable ways to earn money than to team up with a few services, which have long been known to carry out shady practices.

Someone might argue that they are just giving you the options to opt for these services at the time of installation. It is all upto users to accept or reject these offers.

But I totally disagree with this viewpoint. Even after a lot of spread of knowledge about spyware, adware and online security threat, still I find a majority of Internet users not knowing what they are clicking and how they should click on a link. They do not bother to pause a fraction of a second just to ponder where this click will lead to. I have seen many computer users just switch off their browser status bar just to save a little browsing space and totally ignoring the risks associated.

In this situation, how can you expect people to fully know the consequences of such additional installations, which come so-called-free with Digsby.

I would suggest that Digsby can try to use a “Donation” button, which might compensate for the development costs. And if they expect to get more, they can make two versions of Digsby. One FREE with minimalistic features, and the second PRO with advanced features. This is a standard practice and well regarded by the Internet community.

If Digsby do not change their practice, the day may not be far when people will dump them like Kaaza and LimeWire, which also involved themselves into shady practices, although in a bit more hidden ways.

What is your take? Just shoot here in the comments section.

In the press release that solemnized the deal between Google and Yahoo to display Google ads in Yahoo search results, there was also another announcement that Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk would have interoperability. In plain words it works out to you being able to message your friends from Google Talk through Yahoo Messenger and vice versa.

Both Yahoo and Google Talk are not new to having interoperability with different messenger clients.

Image Credit

Yahoo being the first one in the race had interoperability with Windows Live Messenger back in 2006. Late last year Google too announced a interoperability with AIM messenger (they have a 5% stake in AOL, the parent company of AIM owned by Time Warner).

With the recent Microsoft and Yahoo showdown it has been quite known that there has been no love lost between the two of them, the Google deal not only rubs salt into Microsoft wounds, but the interoperability between the messengers also leaves Windows Live Messenger quite a lot to lose against.

Yahoo Messenger recently rolled out a new feature to import contacts from various sites including both Windows Live and Google accounts which underlines their strategy of bringing more and more users under the Yahoo Messenger fold.  Disclaimer: I am the lead developer for the third party service that works in the back-end to bring this feature into Yahoo Messenger.

With the interoperability deal both Yahoo and Google Talk they can ensure that they will be taking more and more users towards their own bases and quite frankly the features Yahoo Messenger has been rolling out have been much better than both Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk.

My views are not biased between any of the three companies but frankly Microsoft is losing the plot in the web world and they are definitely losing a lot of money too providing cash backs and signing deals like the $6 billion payout for aQuantative, but with cash cows like the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office suite bringing them billions and billions of dollars profits each year, who are we to complain?