The Furture of "IM"

Introduction

In the past Instant Messaging has been used mostly by teenagers to chat with their friends but times are changing and many businesses are capitalizing on the opportunity to communicate with multiple people simultaneously. So what is Instant Messaging or (IM)? According to Discovering Computer 2003, “Instant messaging (IM) is a real-time Internet communications service that notifies you when one or more people are online and then allows you to exchange messages or files or join a private chat room with them” (p.2.36). There are several different types of IM software out there for instance AOL Instant Message, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, IBM’s Lotus, and ICQ for which all of them are refiguring there programs for the business world. Some of the software applications costs money but there are many out there free of charge. Improving communication and service is the goal for many companies which is the reason why IM is playing an increasing role in businesses around the world. Researches have estimated “some 135 million workers use instant messaging at the office, and that number is expected to more than triple to 477 million by 2009, according to Radicati Group Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., market- research firm.”(Proquest) With this in mind businesses need to evaluate the advantages verse the disadvantages of IM and decide whether their company would benefit from implementing it in daily operations.