With six nominations and now four titles in the first-ever IM Best Awards reader survey, dotSyntax, developers of Digsby, have just one question ahead of them in the next year: How do we take a near-perfect client and make it even better?
After receiving more than 170 nominations written by Digsby users, three items surfaced as important to a large segment of the IM population: we want efficiency (in terms of speed/design of the end product AND time between client releases), we want developers to value our needs and we want a product that is fun to use. Clearly, Digsby and its developers at dotSyntax were listening.
In addition to building a strong instant messenger, they packed it with features and personalization options that would help reduce the steps neccessary to enjoy things we are already doing, like social networking and sending e-mail. The developers also adopted a work ethic which allowed them to really listen to the needs of the consumer, build at a fast clip and turn around an improved product faster than many other clients out there. And, ultimately, they made Digsby fun to use, because the end user understood and believed they were getting a very valuable tool--and a team behind that tool dedicated to making things happen for the consumer.
These developers stood up for their users, choosing innovation over a simple re-treatment of what the big boys were doing; in response, their users stood up for them to help get their client, Digsby, titles in four separate categories. Download Digsby for free. Available on Windows; clients for Mac and Linux coming soon.
How Readers Voted
- dotSyntax, for Digsby 73 percent (1730 votes)
- Evan Schoenberg and Team Adium, for Adium 23 percent (556 votes)
- Mats Bengtsson, for Coccinella 0 percent (13 votes)
- Team Meebo, for Meebo Two percent (62 votes)
