Directory Enquiries Uk

Free phone chat line numbers - Are there any good ones? I know of one of the best chat lines that is 100% free Connections Chat at 1-218-339-3717. But are there any other free chat lines in the U.S. and are they any good?

Do you know any phone chat line numbers with free trials?

dose anybody no any free home phone chat line numbers in texas?

free phone chat lines? I am looking for free phone chat line numbers. to chat with ppl

Are there any FREE lesbian PHONE chat numbers i can call to meet local girls? I have been living in Richmond Va for almost 3 years now and its hard to find SINGLE lesbian females here. I have tried Lavender Line but they charge and i really didn't like it. I just want to know if anyone knows any FREE LOCAL (804, Richmond Va) lesbian PHONE chatline numbers that i can try to meet local singles...

Are there any local chat lines? Are there any local northern california free phone line chat numbers besides studio 55?

Chat Phone Numbers: What are the all about? You seem them advertized on TV really late at night. I see them a lot when I watch Blind Date at like 1 in the morning. "Girls call for free" "I feel like I can say what ever I want" "Real live local people looking to party" I really have no idea what those are... Are the really sex chat lines? Anyone ever call? Is it really just a bunch of local people talking in one big room? hmmm....

ok, where are these free phone chat lines,.? Does anyone know the numbers to these adult free phone lines,. If so,. please send them my way.

DATING PHONE CHAT LINES...know any tri state numbers? are they free? if so which ones? number please? My friend and i are hella bored

Anyone know of any free chat phone lines for local pa people? I'm looking for a free chat line to call and meet new friends in pa... anyone have any numbers?

can anybody give me numbers to any chicago local chat line for free im very serious no jokes? where u can meet others and talk over the phone in your local area for free only in chicago

Free phone chat lines.? is there any free phone chats lines were i dont need a credit card to talk to people? if there;s amy please give me the numbers. is there any free phone chats lines were i dont need a credit card to talk to people? if there's any please give me the numbers.

What is the number to the kansas city partyline (Phone chat personals)? I'm looking for the party line (phone chat personals) for kansas city. Please provide me with the free numbers only. thank you

Party line, phone fun? My girls and I want to have a bitt fun, and were wondering if there are ANY FREEE* party line numbers? ..Playmate numbers that we can call and chat to ladies && men, FOR FREE. if you have any good united states numbers, please fill free to give them to me, thanksss!

Phone and online help lines for other countries? Hey I'm writing a story that deals with some heavy topics (rape, abuse, self-harm) and I would really like to put an author's note at the end of the story that encourages anyone dealing with issues like these to talk to someone. Then I'd like to list some free-call numbers for help lines where they can discuss with someone anonymously, but I only know the ones for Australia. So if anyone can tell me the help line number (or online chat) for their country (especially Great Britain and the US) I would really appreciate it.

A sign of the times? 1.You try to enter your password on the microwave. 2. You haven't played Solitaire with real cards in years. 3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3. 4. You e-mail your work colleague at the desk next to you to ask "Do you want to go down the pub?" and they reply, "Yeah, give me five minutes". 5. You chat several times a day with a stranger from Sweden, but you haven't spoken to your next-door neighbor yet this year. 6. You buy a computer and a week later it is out of date. 7. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have e-mail addresses. 8. You consider Post Office painfully slow or call it "snail mail". 9. Your idea of being organized is multiple colored post-it notes. 10. You hear most of your jokes via email instead of in person. 11. When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally insert a "9" to get an outside line. 12. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies. 13. Your biggest loss from a system crash is that you lose all your best jokes. 14. Your supervisor doesn't have the ability to do your job. 15. You see a good looking, smart person and you know it must be a visitor. 16. Free food left over from meetings is your staple diet. 17. The work experience person gets a brand-new state-of-the-art laptop with all the features, while you have time to go for lunch while yours powers up. 18. You're already late on the assignment you just got. 19. Vacation is something you roll over to next year. 20. Every week another brown collection envelope comes round because someone you didn't know had started is leaving. 21. Your relatives and family describe your job as "works with computers". 22. The only reason you recognize your kids is because their pictures are on your desk. 23. You only have makeup for fluorescent lighting. 24. You read this entire list, kept nodding and smiling.

party lines? ok so i'm looking for more of those fun and free party lines. when you first dial the number it has the voice of that guy who says "WELCOME TO THE FUN AND FREE PARTY LINE! NO THIRD PARTY CHARGES WILL EVER SHOW UP ON YOUR PHONE BILL!". it is pretty much like a chat room over the phone and there are 5 rooms and you press the # key to change rooms and it makes that dinging noise every time that someone enters the room and has a computer generated voice that tells how many people are in the room when someone enters. i know that the dallas number is 815-960-8252, but I know that there are more I have been on. i would prefer only numbers that are for sure the same as this dallas one because i know for a fact they are free and i trust it. thanks.

NBA: whats you background knowledge? Since KB24 has been running this game its had me thinking. What is your basketball background as a fan. Not to say HA know more then you or any of that. But stories are interesting as to how weve become part of this community and the common thread of the love of this game. For example: Me. Born and raised a Houston Rockets fan. Dad took me to my first game in 1978 vs Sonics (the team that would win the title the next season) Rockets lost. Got Rudy T and Calvin Garrett's autograph and looked at Rick Barry and said "Mr Barry can i get your autograph" he was looking right at me then turned away, think his name shoud start with a "P". Anyway. Always went to at least one game every year, it gets harder once you get kids, have more income and les money. Used to play on Yahoo! back in the 90's when they had NTN basketball trivia for free. Way b4 YA. Was pretty awesome. Used to chat with this gal ladiluck88 she knew hoops big time, then we found out we were both in Houston so she gave me her number and I called from the office....whoops never mind. So anyway in 99 or 98 there was this contest on 950KPRC am radio. It was during the who wants to be a millionaire run. You emailed them your name and phone number and they would call and do millionaire style basketball Q's for a trip to Toronto to see Rocket V Raptors for the weekend. Well at 5 they started calling numbers and first guy, he just left work, next guy gave his home number on and on so they say lets go to commercial and get this lined up here. Then my phone rings. I was first one up. 4 Q's, can remember some of em. Shaq won the scoring title that year so the Q was the last C to do that b4 him which was David Robinson. Another was the last guard to be taken No1 overall in the draft which was Allen Iverson. Then the 4th was Wilt Chamberlin he scored 100 points (Im thinking really youve got to be kidding me your going with one of my fav stats and think your going to stump me) he said scored against what team (started to take a breath to answer then) and this is multiple choice (thought OK Im bought to ruin their game as the first player might as well play along) and then debated before I decided to go with NYKnicks like I didnt know it already. Bingo game over, trip to Toronto for the weekend and Rockets game. Was nice. Good fans there, no doubt hockey town but talking with them in the stands a good knowledge and appreciation of the game. And I let my wife go shopping as I dragged along. Gotta pay to play. So any good stories or backgound on a get to know about yall basis? Great how Dad's raise us to love this game NYK. Mine will still tell me Wilt Chamberlin is the GOAT. Of course, he doesnt say GOAT though. He saw him play with the Globtrotters in Odessa Tx. Said he was amazing. Wish of course I could drop 10 on all yall but NYK's story touched me. Great now Im gonna sound like a puss. Finally got my Boy 2 years old now and he likes his Lil Tykes goal. Cant wait to see who we argue about as GOAT. LOL.

POLL: what would you have done? ok... so i want to know if i did the right thing....?? first i have to give you a little background on the situation: ~my boyfriend and i have a hard time meeting other couple friends since were both pretty new to the area... i have my friends and he has his... but none are couples... and if your dating someone you prob know how we feel - sometimes its just more fun to meet and hang out with other couples instead of just our single friends all the time... ok- so any way we were at the beach one day a couple weeks ago and we met a couple! they seemed very nice- not creepy or weird or disfunctional or anything like that ... just average normal people! so of course we were very excited!!! especially since they were in the same boat we were in (having a hard time finding couple friends) ... anyway we exchanged numbers and agreed we would meet up one of these days comming up... well... for st. pattys day my boyfriend and i had nothing to do - besides go out drinking with a group of our single friends - but we just werent really in the drinking at a large over crowded (since it was st.pattys day) bar mood... well we thought perfect... lets call up the couple we met and see what they are up to and if they had plans.... luckily they were free and so we met up at a restaurant for some dinner then went back to their place for some drinks and to chat for a while... they were super cool ... i got along great with both of them and they us! nothing weird or any akward silences... just had a grand ole time.... well a few days after that my boyfriend and i were both free... and living here in sunny florida decided to take advantage of the weather and go to the beach... so of course we call up our couple and see if they were free to join us... well they tell us that the guy is free but that she had to work all day - but that he would still prob meet up with us anyway ... which we were cool with! SO - we get to the beach and were hanging out ... and eventually the guy calls my bf and lets us know hes there and hed be over to where we were in a few minutes... well when he arrives... hes with a chick.. NOT his girlfriend... some other random girl... he introduces her as his friend - which i try to accept ( as i have guy friends) only she and he seem to be really really friendly... touchy feely even to some degree...then they go off and get lunch together alone not inviting me n my bf to join them ... and when they return they are the same -very 'friendly' with one another... and at one point she asks a question along the lines of 'oh what does he have a gf...?' ok so well ... i am not comfotable with this as i would not like my boyfriend to act this way with another girl on the beach if i was at work all day- even if they were only just friends- and i let my boyfriend know that i am going to tell the girlfriend... well my bf tells him and he pulls me aside and begs me not to tell his girl anything... i tell him if he has nothing to hide why should i not tell her... if they are simply friends whats the harm in me letting his gf know... I WOULD WANT TO KNOW IF MY BOYFRIEND WAS DOING THAT! I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO TTELL ME! ok now i never saw them kiss ... but as i have reiterated before they were very friendly...they were wanting to leave soon but my bf and i decided we would stay a while longer till sunset... and they parked at different ends of the beach but he walks her to her car and we never saw him again... sooooo to wrap this up ... i end up calling his girlfriend and telling her what i saw as i felt that would be the friend thing to do - and how could i hang out with them again and smile to her face knowing what i saw.... that would not be being a good friend... well they live together and she tells him what i told her ... and he gets mad and she calls up this friend of his and confronts her over the phone ... well now i dont know what the 'friend' and the boyfriend have told the girlfriend ... but she obviously doesnt buy what i told her ... and then gives the 'friend' my number - and i start getting all these threatening txts and calls from the girl that was at the beach.... so now im pissed! i was just trying to help this girl out and let her know what her bf was up to because I WOULD HAVE WANTED TO KNOW.... and i felt i was doing the right thing... and i feel so mad that she would throw me under the bus and give this random girl my number... should i have kept my mouth shut and not said anything?? i wasnt lying... what do i have to gain from lying... like i said we were having a hard time meeting couple friends so i deff didnt want to ruin it... and i liked the girlfriend so i felt it was my duty to tell her as i would have wanted her to tell me had the roles been reversed and i had been at work and she and her bf had met up with my bf and he was with another girl being overly friendly... UGH! what should i do??!!

Phone chat lines for teens? Me and my friend are bored and want some fun numbers to call that are free chat lines, preferably teen ones =]

help i have no idea wat this means some body explain in short text 10 points best answer in plain explantion? Overview Instant messaging (IM) and chat are technologies that facilitate near real-time text based communication between two or more participants over a network. It is important to understand that what separates chat and instant messaging from technologies such as e-mail is the perceived synchronicity of the communication by the user - Chat happens in real-time before your eyes. For this reason, some people consider communication via instant messaging to be less intrusive than communication via phone. However, some systems allow the sending of messages to people not currently logged on (offline messages), thus removing much of the difference between Instant Messaging and e-mail. Instant Messaging allows instantaneous communication between a number of parties simultaneously, by transmitting information quickly. Some IM systems allow users to use webcams and Microphone which made them more popular than others. Due to this feature users can have a real-time conversation. In addition IM has additional features such as: the immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply, group chatting, conference services (including voice and video), conversation logging and file transfer. IM allows effective and efficient communication, featuring immediate receipt of acknowledgment or reply. In certain cases Instant Messaging involves additional features, which make it even more popular, i.e. to see the other party, e.g. by using web-cams, or to talk directly for free over the Internet. It is possible to save a conversation for later reference. Instant messages are typically logged in a local message history which closes the gap to the persistent nature of e-mails and facilitates quick exchange of information like URLs or document snippets (which can be unwieldy when communicated via telephone). [edit] History In early instant messaging programs each character appeared when it was typed. The UNIX "talk" command shown in these screenshots was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s.Instant messaging actually predates the Internet, first appearing on multi-user operating systems like CTSS and Multics[1] in the mid-1960s. Initially, many of these systems, such as CTSS'.SAVED, were used as notification systems for services like printing, but quickly were used to facilitate communication with other users logged in to the same machine. As networks developed, the protocols spread with the networks. Some of these used a peer-to-peer protocol (eg talk, ntalk and ytalk), while others required peers to connect to a server (see talker and IRC). During the Bulletin board system (BBS) phenomenon that peaked during the 1980s, some systems incorporated chat features which were similar to instant messaging; Freelancin'_Roundtable was one prime example. In the last half of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Quantum Link online service for Commodore 64 computers offered user-to-user messages between currently connected customers which they called "On-Line Messages" (or OLM for short). Quantum Link's better known later incarnation, America Online, offers a similar product under the name "AOL Instant Messages" (AIM). While the Quantum Link service ran on a Commodore 64, using only the Commodore's PETSCII text-graphics, the screen was visually divided up into sections and OLMs would appear as a yellow bar saying "Message From:" and the name of the sender along with the message across the top of whatever the user was already doing, and presented a list of options for responding.[2] As such, it could be considered a sort of GUI, albeit much more primitive than the later Unix, Windows and Macintosh based GUI IM programs. OLMs were what Q-Link called "Plus Services" meaning they charged an extra per-minute fee on top of the monthly Q-Link access costs. Modern, Internet-wide, GUI-based messaging clients, as they are known today, began to take off in the mid 1990s with ICQ (1996) being the first, followed by AOL Instant Messenger (AOL Instant Messenger, 1997). AOL later acquired Mirabilis, the creators of ICQ. A few years later ICQ (by now owned by AOL) was awarded two patents for instant messaging by the U.S. patent office. Meanwhile, other companies developed their own applications (Excite, MSN, Ubique, and Yahoo), each with its own proprietary protocol and client; users therefore had to run multiple client applications if they wished to use more than one of these networks. In 1998 IBM released IBM Lotus Sametime, a product based on technology acquired when IBM bought Haifa-based Ubique and Lexington-based Databeam. In 2000, an open source application and open standards-based protocol called Jabber was launched. Jabber servers could act as gateways to other IM protocols, reducing the need to run multiple clients. Multi-protocol clients such as Digsby,Pidgin, Trillian, Adium and Miranda can use any of the popular IM protocols by using additional local libraries for each protocol. IBM Lotus Sametime's November 2007 release added IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway support for XMPP. Recently, many instant messaging services have begun to offer video conferencing features, Voice Over IP (VoIP) and web conferencing services. Web conferencing services integrate both video conferencing and instant messaging capabilities. Some newer instant messaging companies are offering desktop sharing, IP radio, and IPTV to the voice and video features. The term "instant messenger" is a service mark of Time Warner[3] and may not be used in software not affiliated with AOL in the United States. For this reason, the instant messaging client formerly known as Gaim or gaim announced in April 2007 that they would be renamed "Pidgin"[4]. [edit] Cooperation Standard free instant messaging applications offer functions like file transfer, contact lists, the ability to have similtaneous converstations etc. These may be all the functions that a small business needs but larger organisations will require more sophisticated applications that can work together. The solution to finding applications capable of this is to use enterprise versions of instant messaging applications. These include titles like Jabber, Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communicator, etc., which are often integrated with other enterprise applications such as workflow systems. These enterprise applications, or Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), are built to certain constraints, namely storing data in a common format. There have been several attempts to create a unified standard for instant messaging: IETF's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and SIMPLE (SIP for Instant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions), APEX (Application Exchange), Prim (Presence and Instant Messaging Protocol), the open XML-based XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), more commonly known as Jabber and OMA's (Open Mobile Alliance) IMPS (Instant Messaging and Presence Service) created specifically for mobile devices. Most attempts at creating a unified standard for the major IM providers (AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft) have failed and each continues to use its own proprietary protocol. However, while discussions at IETF were stalled, Reuters head of collaboration services, David Gurle (the founder of Microsoft's Real Time Communication and Collaboration business), signed the first inter-service provider connectivity agreement on September 2003. This agreement enabled AIM, ICQ and MSN Messenger users to talk with Reuters Messaging counterparts and vice-versa against an access fee. Following this, Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL came to a deal where Microsoft's Live Communication Server 2005 users would also have the possibility to talk to public instant messaging users. This deal established SIP/SIMPLE as a standard for protocol interoperability and established a connectivity fee for accessing public instant messaging clouds. Separately, on October 13, 2005 Microsoft and Yahoo! announced that by (the Northern Hemisphere) summer of 2006 they would interoperate using SIP/SIMPLE which is followed on December 2005 by the AOL and Google strategic partnership deal where Google Talk users would be able to talk with AIM and ICQ users provided they have an identity at AOL. There are two ways to combine the many disparate protocols: One way is to combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM client application. The other way is to combine the many disparate protocols inside the IM server application. This approach moves the task of communicating to the other services to the server. Clients need not know or care about other IM protocols. For example, LCS 2005 Public IM Connectivity. This approach is popular in Jabber/XMPP servers however the so-called transport projects suffer the same reverse engineering difficulties as any other project involved with closed protocols or formats. Some approaches, such as that adopted by the Sonork enterprise IM software or the Jabber/XMPP network or Winpopup LAN Messenger, allow organizations to create their own private instant messaging network by enabling them to limit access to the server (often with the IM network entirely behind their firewall) and administer user permissions. Other corporate messaging systems allow registered users to also connect from outside the corporation LAN, by using a secure firewall-friendly HTTPS based protocol. Typically, a dedicated corporate IM server has several advantages such as pre-populated contact lists, integrated authentication, and better security and privacy. Some networks have made changes to prevent them from being utilized by such multi-network IM clients. For example, Trillian had to release several revisions and patches to allow its users to access the MSN, AOL, and Yahoo! networks, after changes were made to these networks. The major IM providers typically cite the need for formal agreements as well as security concerns as reasons for making these changes. [edit] Mobile Instant Messaging Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) is a presence enabled messaging service that aims to transpose the desktop messaging experience to the usage scenario of being on the move. While several of the core ideas of the desktop experience on one hand apply to a connected mobile device, others do not: Users usually only look at their phone's screen — presence status changes might occur under different circumstances as happens at the desktop, and several functional limits exist based on the fact that the vast majority of mobile communication devices are chosen by their users to fit into the palm of their hand. Some of the form factor and mobility related differences need to be taken into account in order to create a really adequate, powerful and yet convenient mobile experience: radio bandwidth, memory size, availability of media formats, keypad based input, screen output, CPU performance and battery power are core issues that desktop device users and even nomadic users with connected network. [edit] Friend-to-friend networks Instant Messaging may be done in a Friend-to-friend network, in which each node connects to the friends on the friendslist. This allows for communication with friends of friends and for the building of chatrooms for instant messages with all friends on that network. Emotions are often expressed in shorthand. For example; lol. But a movement is currently underway to be more accurate with the emotional expression. Real time reactions such as (chortle) (snort) (guffaw) or (eye-roll) are rapidly taking the place of acronyms.[citation needed] [edit] Business application Instant messaging has proven to be similar to personal computers, e-mail, and the WWW, in that its adoption for use as a business communications medium was driven primarily by individual employees using consumer software at work, rather than by formal mandate or provisioning by corporate information technology departments. Tens of millions of the consumer IM accounts in use are being used for business purposes by employees of companies and other organizations. In response to the demand for business-grade IM and the need to ensure security and legal compliance, a new type of instant messaging, called "Enterprise Instant Messaging" ("EIM") was created when Lotus Software launched IBM Lotus Sametime in 1998. Microsoft followed suit shortly thereafter with Microsoft Exchange Instant Messaging, later created a new platform called Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, and released Office Communications Server 2007 in October 2007. Both IBM Lotus and Microsoft have introduced federation between their EIM systems and some of the public IM networks so that employees may use a single interface to both their internal EIM system and their contacts on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!. Current leading EIM platforms include IBM Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Jabber XCP. In addition, industry-focused EIM platforms such as IMtrader from Pivot Incorporated, Reuters Messaging, and Bloomberg Messaging provide enhanced IM capabilities to financial services companies. The adoption of IM across corporate networks outside of the control of IT organizations creates risks and liabilities for companies who do not effectively manage and support IM use. Companies implement specialized IM archiving and security products and services like those from Secure Computing, Akonix, SurfControl, and ScanSafe to mitigate these risks and provide safe, secure, productive instant messaging capabilities to their employees. [edit] Practical Use in Enterprise The popular embrace of IM technology for sharing information has quickly led to organizations adopting IM solutions for the perceived advantages that can be brought by it. As organizations are becoming more information based (McNurlin & Sprague, 2006, p.499) the need for effective knowledge sharing, team working and collaborative environments amongst employees has become vital, especially within more geographically dispersed teams. Typically IM conversations tend to have a certain "character", they are often short and only cover one topic. Media-switching and multitasking are common throughout, however IM might also be used between established coworkers and friends for longer, more intermittent conversation. In their report of IM use at the workplace Nardi et al. (2000) identifies the four primary functions of IM which are often cited in other reports, These primary functions are: Quick Questions and Clarifications Coordinating and scheduling tasks Coordinating impromptu social meetings Keeping in touch with friends and family IM is perhaps best suited to "Quick Questions and Clarifications" as this is the most often mentioned attribute in other reports. A user can "respond rapidly without the overhead of telephone or FTF interaction. For example, IDC reports, "Users see IM as a medium for quick, semi-permanent ‘flashes’ that beg a near-immediate response" (Isaacs et al., 2002). Nardi's second and third observations are enabled in part due to the "Presence Awareness" feature of IM clients in which the user knows who is "available". This is the most relevant for colleagues who share the same physical space as each other and even paves the way for other mediums to take up the task of communication e.g. F2F or Phone. The implication is that viable communication of any sort can in someway be encouraged through IM's "Presence Awareness" feature. (Issacs et al, 2002) supports this view, "IM in business might not be the main tool for of communication, it could just be the meeting point for another type of media e.g. conference calls. Nardi's third and fourth observations focus on the social use of IM, which have also been widely publicized in other report. That IM is used for keeping in touch with friends and arranging social events has led some employers to believe that it is used primarily for this purpose. According to (Issacs et al, 2002) a market study found that "'Fear of losing employee productivity’ was the greatest concern of businesses in regards to instant messaging". The study by (Issacs et al, 2002) goes on to suggest this fear is unfounded as it was found that on average "only 13% of conversations contained personal topics", and "only 6.4% were exclusively personal". [edit] Review of Products "IM solutions can typically be catagorised into two types: Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) and Consumer Instant Mesaging (CIM). Enterprise solutions use an internal IM server, however this isn't always feasible, particularly for smaller businesses with limited budgets. The second option, using a (CIM) provides the advantage of being inexpensive to implement and has little need for investing in new hardware or server software. However, in recent years open source IM clients such as Jabber have emerged that provide free EIM grade solutions. (Wikipedia,. 2008) For corporate use encryption and conversation archiving are usually regarded as important features due to security concerns. Sometimes the use of different operating systems in organizations calls for the use of software that supports more than one platform. For example many software companies use Windows XP in administration departments but have software developers who use Linux. Most people have had experience of using online chat and messaging over the internet whether it is with Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger, Skype or e-mail. One form of chat and messaging currently popular is Bebo. It is a non-corporate form of messaging which allows its user to create and maintain a social network. Libraries use chat applications and Morris Messenger is an application commonly used by them. This is a power based instant messenger, which uses Perl, SQL, and small Java. It accepts input from both staff and regular customers and saves important information in an SQL database built for the system. [edit] Risks and liabilities Although instant messaging delivers many benefits, it also carries with it certain risks and liabilities, particularly when used in workplaces. Among these risks and liabilities are: Security risks (e.g. IM used to infect computers with spyware, viruses, trojans, worms) Compliance risks Inappropriate use Intellectual property leakage Crackers (malicious "hacker" or black hat hacker) have consistently used IM networks as vectors for delivering phishing attempts, "poison URL's", and virus-laden file attachments from 2004 to the present, with over 1100 discrete attacks listed by the IM Security Center[5] in 2004-2007. Hackers use two methods of delivering malicious code through IM: delivery of virus, trojan, or spyware within an infected file, and the use of "socially engineered" text with a web address that entices the recipient to click on a URL that connects him or her to a website that then downloads malicious code. Viruses, worms, and trojans typically propagate by sending themselves rapidly through the infected user's buddy list. An effective attack using a poison URL may reach tens of thousands of people in minutes when each person's buddy list receives messages appearing to be from a trusted friend. The recipients click on the web address, and the entire cycle starts again. Infections may range from nuisance to criminal, and are becoming more sophisticated each year. In addition to the malicious code threat, the use of instant messaging at work also creates a risk of non-compliance to laws and regulations governing the use of electronic communications in businesses. In the United States alone there are over 10,000 laws and regulations related to electronic messaging and records retention.[6] The more well-known of these include the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA, and SEC 17a-3. Clarification from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") was issued to member firms in the financial services industry in December, 2007, noting that "electronic communications", "email", and "electronic correspondence" may be used interchangeably and can include such forms of electronic messaging as instant messaging and text messaging.[7] Changes to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, effective December 1, 2006, created a new category for electronic records which may be requested during discovery (law) in legal proceedings. Most countries around the world also regulate the use of electronic messaging and electronic records retention in similar fashion to the United States. The most common regulations related to IM at work involve the need to produce archived business communications to satisfy government or judicial requests under law. Many instant messaging communications fall into the category of business communications that must be archived and retrievable. Organizations of all types must protect themselves from the liability of their employees' inappropriate use of IM. The informal, immediate, and ostensibly anonymous nature of instant messaging makes it a candidate for abuse in the workplace. The topic of inappropriate IM use became front page news in October 2006 when Congressman Mark Foley resigned his seat after admitting sending offensive instant messages of a sexual nature to underage former House pages from his Congressional office PC. The Mark Foley Scandal led to media coverage and mainstream newspaper articles warning of the risks of inappropriate IM use in workplaces. In most countries, corporations have a legal responsibility to ensure harassment-free work environment for employees. The use of corporate-owned computers, networks, and software to harass an individual or spread inappropriate jokes or language creates a liability for not only the offender but also the employer. A survey by IM archiving and security provider Akonix Systems, Inc. in March 2007 showed that 31% of respondents had been harassed over IM at work.[8] Companies now include instant messaging as an integral component of their policies on appropriate use of the World Wide Web, e-mail, and other corporate assets. Within the company there is also the risk of employees using instant messaging to release confidential information and project details to an outside source. This issue is best controlled by a combination of written policy and technology. An organization's policies on use of IM in the workplace should be an integral part of the overall computing and network use policies, and should be published and communicated at least annually. In addition to written policy, organizations should implement "gateways" or IM security products to monitor content of inbound and outbound messages. Products from IM security providers (See section on IM security) typically allow administrators to set alerts and enforce policy (i.e. allow or block messages) based on keywords and regular expressions within instant messages. Employees may also misuse IM to communicate on a personal level with friends and family. This is poor use of a business’s time and resources, as the employee’s effectiveness will most certainly decrease due to the added distractions. (Licari, J., May 2005). Businesses often use IM security products to monitor and archive IM conversations for the purpose of minimizing this type of productivity drain. [edit] Security and archiving In the early 2000s, a new class of IT security provider emerged to provide remedies for the risks and liabilities faced by corporations who chose to use IM for business communications. The IM security providers created new products to be installed in corporate networks for the purpose of archiving, content-scanning, and security-scanning IM traffic moving in and out of the corporation. Similar to the e-mail filtering vendors, the IM security providers focus on the risks and liabilities described above. With rapid adoption of IM in the workplace, demand for IM security products began to grow in the mid-2000s. By 2007, the preferred platform for the purchase of security software had become the "appliance", according to IDC, who estimate that by 2008, 80% of network security products will be delivered via an appliance.[9] [edit] User base Note that many of the numbers listed in this section are not directly comparable, and some are speculative. Some instant messaging systems are distributed among many different instances and thus difficult to measure in total (e.g. Jabber). While some numbers are given by the owners of a complete instant messaging system, others are provided by commercial vendors of a part of a distributed system. Some companies may be motivated to inflate their numbers in order to increase advertisement earnings or to attract partners, clients, or customers. Importantly, some numbers are reported as the number of "active" users (without a shared standard of that activity), others indicate total user accounts, while others indicate only the users logged in during an instance of peak usage. Service User count Date/source AIM 53 million active September 2006 >100 million total January 2006 Jabber 40-50 million total January 2007, based on calculations of Jabber Inc 90 million total Based on calculations of Process-One: Process-One uses ejabberd as Jabber server software. If it is assumed that ejabberd has a 40% market share amongst public and private open source server deployments, there are 50 million users using open source servers. With Jabber Inc's numbers, this adds up to the 90 million number stated here. eBuddy 35 million total October 2006, including 4 million mobile users Windows Live Messenger 294 million active worldwide November 2007 Yahoo! Messenger 22 million total September 2006 QQ 20 million peak online (majority in China) 3 June 2006 221 million "active" (majority in China) 3 June 2006 IBM Lotus Sametime 17 million total (private, in enterprises) November 2007 ICQ 15 million active July 2006 Skype 12 million peak online February 2008 309 million total April 2008 Xfire 10 million total May 2008 MXit 7 million total (>560,000 outside of South Africa) 10 August 2007. Note that these users are part of the Jabber user base as MXit federates with the Jabber network. Gadu-Gadu 5.6 million total June 2006 Paltalk 3.3 million unique visitors per month August 2006 IMVU 1 million total June 2007 Mail.ru Agent 1 million active (daily) September 2006 Meebo 1 million total October 2006 PSYC 1 million active (daily) (majority in Brazil) February 2007. Total count cannot be accurately estimated due to the decentralized nature of the protocol. VZOchat >200,000 October 2007 [edit] IM Language Users sometimes make use of internet slang or text speak to abbreviate common words or expressions in order to quicken conversations or to reduce keystrokes. [edit] See also Comparison of instant messaging clients Comparison of instant messaging protocols Instant messaging manager LAN messenger Text messaging it is a question