Best Instant Messenger?

Once upon a time you needed a chat client running on your computer for each and every instant messaging service you used, and since different buddies used different IM protocols, you had run different programs at once to chat with all your peeps. But that’s no longer the case. Nowadays advanced chat applications work across networks, and boast plug-ins and features that put IM apps of yesteryear to shame. For this week’s Hive Five, we want to know: What’s your favourite instant messenger client? Your choice can be desktop- or web-based—or anything, really—as long as it does chat. Hit the jump for details on how to cast your ballot.

Like last week’s call for contenders, you’ll put your nomination in the comments. However, since we received over 300 comments last go-round, I’m going to ask that you make your vote very clear. So this week, when you comment with your favourite, make sure you cast your vote at the very top of the post like so: VOTE: Pidgin. Feel free to comment to your heart’s content after that, but be sure to make your choice clear.

About the Hive Five: Our new feature series, the Hive Five, gets readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get—”Which solution is the best?”. Once a week we’ll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favourite tools to get a job done. A day later, we’ll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. Check out last week’s Digital Photo Organiser Hive Five.

Now that we’ve got that straightened out, get to nominating your favourite IM client in the comments!