If you’ve ever been frustrated by an Instant Messaging client, be it for lack of functionality or just-plain-strange behavior, you should really check out  Digsby.

Background

Trust me, I’ve used my fair share of IM clients.  AIM was the first, of course, in tandem with Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, followed by Pidgin, Trillian, meebo, Google Talk and, ultimately, Digsby.  You want to be able to chat with your friends/colleagues no matter what service they like so a multi-protocol IM client is almost entirely necessary now.  Of the aforementioned products, that leaves Trillian, Pidgin, meebo and Digsby. 

The Competition

Trillian Astra (currently in alpha-testing, not yet available to the general public) is a vast improvement over Trillian 3.0.  It’s lighter, faster, gorgeous and, like Digsby, keeps your profile and contacts synchronized on any computer you might be using.

Pidgin does not offer synchronization across multiple devices but it’s 100% open-source.  So, you’ve got a plethora of options when it comes to making the application conform to your needs via third-party plugins.

meebo, which I’ve covered before, sets itself apart from the group I’ve mentioned by being the only online-based IM client.  (There are competitors like eBuddy and Yoomba but I’ve only used meebo.)  Create an account at the site, store your AOL/Google/Yahoo!/MSN profiles in that account and you’re good to go.  There’s no need to download a client in order to chat with people…just log onto meebo.com in your Web browser – which you’ve most likely got open all the time anyway.  It’s the perfect tool for those on the go (or for those in a strict corporate environment.)

The Big Kahuna

Needless to say, there are plenty of other IM clients out there but, for the sake of brevity, I’m only going for the major players…or at least the ones I’ve used.)  So, in my opinion, what makes the privately held, NY-based Digsby stand above the rest?

First of all, the major IM protocols mentioned above are covered so, if you’ve got an account with one of them, you can use Digsby to connect to it.  That’s your basic stuff, though. 

The big benefit the program offers is its’ integration with multiple social networks including Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.  You can stay up-to-date with new Facebook friend requests, wall posts, Twitter tweets (and even create new ones – right from your system tray) and keep everyone up-to-date as to your current status.

You’re also given the ability check multiple E-mail accounts like Gmail, Yahoo!, Windows Live, AOL…or any POP or IMAP account for that matter.  You can keep track of your inbox, delete messages and send new messages – all without firing up your browser or favorite E-mail client.

Next up are the program’s little bells & whistles.  Perhaps my favorite Digsby feature are it’s intelligent notifications for new IMs.  Each incoming instant message brings a pop-up notification in the lower-right corner of your screen, inside of which is the content of the message being sent as well as a text-field you can use for your reply.  No need to switch over to your IM application and further distract yourself from work…just type out a quick reply and carry on with what you were doing:

In addition, you get notifications for new activity in your E-mail accounts and social networks.  (New Twitter tweets or Facebook new friend requests popping up aren’t quite as distracting as you’d think they’d be.  In fact, they’re really quite helpful.)

Digsby’s program preferences also bring some little surprises including extensive skinning and privacy options.  You even have the option to create a Digsby Facebook chat widget which can be added to your Facebook profile page:

Just About Perfect…

So, what’s it missing?  In my opinion, it just needs to integrate a few more services into the application.  As I stated above, you can already keep track of your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts but, for me at least, it’s missing a few key services: Pownce (for those Twitter rebellions), Google Reader (for the items you can’t help to share), Last.fm, del.icio.us, Flickr and/or Picasa and, last but not least, RSS.  (RSS functionality may prove to be a little too distracting though.)

Further down the line, it might also be nice to see some options for video chat – for which the developers can definitely look to meebo for inspiration.

So, check out Digsby’s list of features or just download the program now (for Windows, Mac and Linux) and see for yourself.

From AOL, “Today is a historic day at AOL as we annouced, just moments ago, a software development kit for AOL Instant Messenger. Open AIM will empower you, as the developer, to write custom clients, plugins, and eventually bots. When you include this SDK with the web presence API and AIM Model-T (IAmAlpha, or AIM Modules) we are really starting to build compelling social development tools. The SDK will be available starting at 5AM EST today at developer.aim.com.”