Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via devices connected over a network such as the Internet.
Instant messaging is very important becausev it is the we communicate ..Some of the instant messaging are,..

eBuddy is a web browser-based instant messaging service that originally started as e-Messenger in 2003. It combines MSN, AOL, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook and MySpace IM into a single web based interface. It is also available via mobile phones, independent of carrier or device via WAP or mobile internet browser.

eBuddy is a privately-held company backed by Prime Technology Ventures and Lowland Capital Partners.

eBuddy is headquartered in Amsterdam and has a second, local office in London. The company launched a third and fourth, a Canadian office in Vancouver in 2006 and a US office in San Francisco in April 2008.
Paulo Taylor is the inventor of eBuddy. The idea came to life when he made a bet with a friend in which he said he could get MSN to work on a mobile phone. Working full-time at an internet company, Paulo spent his after hours working on a mobile MSN application. After several weeks, he won the bet and uploaded the application on a server. It was here that visitors asked if he could make a web version of the application. As user traffic spurred, Paulo decided to take the idea to the next level.

On September 9th 2003, Paulo together with two partners created EverywhereMSN.com. Microsoft however claimed the domain name and shortly after on December 4th 2003 the domain was changed to e-messenger.net. On May 1st 2004, e-Messenger became incorporated. On June 1st 2006, e-Messenger was renamed to eBuddy.
eBuddy offers a secure login option. Users can also indicate if they wish to sign on invisibly. The chat client includes a tab mode setting to differentiate chat windows, similar to tabbed web browsing. The beta version released in June 2007 supports multiple IM networks in one interface.

The second is,,the Meebo..
Meebo is an Ajax-based in-browser instant messaging program which supports multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, .NET Messenger Service, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, MySpaceIM, Facebook Chat and Jabber; it is based on the free and open source library libpurple created by the software developers of Pidgin.

Meebo also developed a version of Meebo for use on the iPhone and a native application that runs on Android mobile phones.

Meebo was founded in September 2005 by Sandy Jen, Seth Sternberg and Elaine Wherry, and is based in Mountain View, California.

Meebo received funding from Sequoia Capital on December 15, 2005. Meebo includes features such as invisible sign on (to prevent others from knowing when a user connects) and simultaneous connections to multiple IM services.

On August 2, 2006, Meebo launched the "meebo me" widget, which allows users to embed a version of Meebo on their personal website. Additionally, on October 11, 2006, they announced a partnership with Amie Street to include the "meebo me" widget on each Amie Street user page.

Achievements

* In June 2006, Meebo was listed 65 of PC World’s 100 Best Products of the Year.
* In August 2006, Meebo was listed as one of Time's Top 50 Coolest Websites for 2006.

And the Last is Skype,,,
Skype (IPA: [skaɪp]) is software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and to free-of-charge numbers are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

It was created by entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and a team of software developers based in Tallinn, Estonia. The Skype Group has its headquarters in Luxembourg, with offices in London, Tallinn, Tartu, Stockholm, Prague, and San Jose.

Skype has experienced rapid growth in popular usage since the launch of its services. It was acquired by eBay in September 2005 for $2.6 billion.
One of the initial names for the project was "Sky peer-to-peer", which was then abbreviated to "Skyper". However some of the domain names associated with "Skyper" were already taken. Dropping the final 'r' left the current title "Skype", for which domain names were available.
On April 24, 2008, Skype announced that they offer Skype on around 50 mobile phones.On October 29, 2007, Skype launched its own mobile phone under the brand name 3 Skypephone, which runs a BREW OS. Skype is available for the N800 and N810 Internet Tablets, which use the Linux Maemo environment. Skype is available on both the Sony Mylo COM-1 and newer COM-2 models. Skype is available for the PSP (PlayStation Portable) Slim and Lite with firmware version 3.90 or higher, but the user needs to purchase one of three microphone input peripherals. The new PSP-3000 has a built in microphone which allows communication without the Skype peripheral Skype is available on mobile devices running Windows Mobile.The official Symbian version was under development in 2006, but was not released. Official Skype support is available as part of X-Series together with mobile operator 3. However this uses a regular mobile phone call and iskoot to a Skype gateway, rather than mobile internet. Other companies produce dedicated Skype phones which connect via WiFi. Third party developers, such as Nimbuzz and Fring, have allowed Skype to run in parallel with several other competing VoIP/IM networks in any Symbian or Java environment. Nimbuzz has made Skype available to BlackBerry users.