This year's winners of the 2010 Best IM Clients category illustrate a growing trend in the consumer's desire for IM clients and features which are easy-to-use, mobile, and work to solve a problem, whether filling a void when there is nobody to talk to online, to saving money on mobile calls to friends and family around town and across the globe.
Learn more about these great IMs, our winners of the Best IM category:
Best IM Client of 2010: Miranda IM
Copyright © 2010 Miranda IM. Miranda IM is released under the GNU GPL license.
With over 350 Miranda IM plugins, this easy-to-use IM client packs a real punch to the likes of AIM and Yahoo! Messenger, who sell users on a mandatory bill of goods, whether you intend to use those features or not. For this reason alone, users overwhelmed the competition to name Miranda IM the Best IM Client of 2010.
Best Third-Party IM: Miranda IM
Copyright © 2010 Miranda IM. Miranda IM is released under the GNU GPL license.
While bare bones and simple in design, for the IM user who only needs IM and perhaps a few features, Miranda IM is the kind of multi-protocol IM that users can rely on, particularly if saving computer resources is any factor. Miranda IM is a clear choice for Best Third-Party/Independent IM of 2010.
Best Mac IM: Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0
From its sleek design and user interface, to its customizable set of plugins, plus full access to many features you'll find on Adium, Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 builds an exciting platform from which thousands of Mac users can IM friends on both Yahoo! and Windows Live Messenger. An exciting choice for Best IM for Mac for the second year in a row!
Best Mobile IM: Nimbuzz Mobile
Courtesy, Nimbuzz.com
When all factors are considered (cost vs. free, efficiency and novelty), Nimbuzz Mobile wins in a landslide, and I proudly endorse this client as the 2010 Best Mobile IM on About.com.
Best IM Feature: Brosix Screenshot
I love Brosix Screenshot's simplicity and have found this is a great collaboration tool for businesses and individuals who can't settle for expressing thoughts in words alone.
Best IM Chat Rooms: Groups.im
Groups.im is an exciting chat community which extends the power of the three previously mentioned IM clients, with absolutely no download or plugin installation. An exciting choice for Best IM Chat Rooms.
Best IM Design: Nimbuzz
Extremely organized and clean, I appreciated how carefully Nimbuzz designers were in creating the Buddy List, particularly organizing IM clients together rather than allowing them to appear scattered across IM groups.
IM Developers of the Year: Nimbuzz
Overall, Nimbuzz offers a clean, exciting IM client great for IM users who are just getting started or who have an account on every client. The team at Nimbuzz deserves this award for Best IM Developers of the Year based on their client's innovation and versatility.
