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Contents 1 Definition 2 History 3 Chatting 4 Instant messaging 5 AIM 6 MSN Messenger 7 Recent developments

Communication software - is the program that is used to exchange real-time messages in text, audio and/or video formats for communication purposes from one user ID to another, taken that they are situated on different computers. This term is used when referred to chat and instant messaging programs, and sometimes to MUDs, MUSHs and MOOs, though the latter is arguable.

First chat was created inside university network called Bitnet by Jeff Kell. The program was named Bitnet Relay Chat. The version 0.01 of Bitnet Relay Chat appeared in early 1980’s. But since it took too much of CPU, the chat gained a sufficient number of opponents. This problem of CPU was resolved when Valdis Kletnieks created its Pascal version in the late 1980's. Bitnet Relay Chat for Bitnet was a predecessor of Internet Relay Chat that functioned in Internet. In August 1988 Internet Relay Chat was created by Finnish developer Jarkko Oikarinen at the time of his work at University of Oulu. It was plaintext protocol program with SSL options.
Instant messaging appeared on private computer network in 1970' and was followed by Unix-Linux “talk” command, which can also be considered a kind of instant messaging instrument. ICQ was the first to introduce combination of presence, list of users and ability to send messages.

Chatting is a real-time conversation or message exchange that takes place at one web site either in public or in private room. It is possible to appoint moderators who will trace and block offensive comments and other kinds of abuse. Based on visual representation chats are divided into text based chat room just as were IRC and Bitnet Relay Chat, 2D – supporting graphic smilies; and 3D the conversation in which takes place in 2D graphic surrounding.
Nowadays among the most spread chats are Yahoo chat, Userplane, Ray chat.
Yahoo is a chat with voice options. User can either type if doesn’t have a microphone, or simply talk if there is one. Userplane is a flash chat that supports audio and video formats. User can have several conversations at one time thanks to multiusers a/v streaming. Plus it has such features as rich text formatting, resizable interface, international language support. For a long time Userplane was an only chat of this kind, supporting a/v formats. But in April BoonEx introduced an analog to this program - Ray multimedia software.

Instant messaging is a real time conversation that is done via special program online between user and other users who are present in his/her list of friends. No moderation except personal is done. User can manage the contact list by simply blocking unwanted contacts.

ICQ is an instant messenger developed in 1996 by Mirabilis. In 1998 it was acquired by AOL. It is a single protocol program and is distributed as free adware. It is designed for Windows and MAC OS X, supports file transfers, games, audio/video chat and sms messaging.

AIM was released by AOL in May 1997 and by August 2005 they had 195 millions of users. It uses OSCAR instant messaging protocol and TOC protocol and is created for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Unix operation systems. Supports audio and video formats, sms, file transfers.

MSN messenger was released in July 1999 by Microsoft with the aim to serve home users. It is a single protocol program developed for Windows OS. Supports file transfer excluding .EXE files, Unicode, scripting and message logging. Available are audio and video format support, whiteboard sharing, sms.

The recent developments were marked with the trend to unite the functions of both IM and chat and enriching functionality by adding video and audio communication options. Using Flash platform became a good solution for multimedia software as it is proved to be easier and not traffic overloading.
Usually modern chat interface is presented as a general chat room, where the user gets after logging in, which is called Lobby or Waiting room. Later the user can choose either staying there or creating additional chat room and inviting there a person to chat with. One can move from one room to another simply with a click at the room’s icon. For a private messaging user can address IM function. Video and audio transmission can be managed with respective buttons on video/audio console. By the way of example of these recent developments Userplane can be named as a hosted solution and Ray chat – the recent development by BoonEx Group - as an independent solution.

http://www.nethistory.dumbentia.com - on the history of Bitnet
http://www.irc.org/history_docs/jarkko.html - IRC History by Jarkko Oikarinen
http://www.kumpu.org/ - Jarkko Oikarinen’s home page
http://www.epinions.com/cmsw-EmailChat-All-Yahoo_Yahoo__Chat/display_~reviews - reviews on Yahoo Chat
http://www.boonex.com/
http://www.userplane.com/
http://aricent.com/