IM + Facebook + Email = Digsby

Digsby is a new, multi-network IM client that connects to all the big IM networks -- AIM, ICQ, WLM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber -- and can integrate with your email, Facebook and Myspace accounts. Digsby's goal is to give you one place to manage your online contacts.

Digsby has just been released in a private beta, and tonight I had a chance to play around with it. If you're the type of person who loves living on the bleeding edge of technology, leave a reply and I'll send you an invite.

When you first sign up for Digsby and get the client installed and running, it looks a lot like Trillian, or any other multi-IM client out there. Dock-able contact list, theme support, grouping of contacts, the works. You might notice (in Windows at least) that it puts itself in your icon tray. From there you can conveniently change your global status or get to the preferences pane. The real magic happens when you start adding other services.

Instant Messaging Support / Customization

IM is core to Digsby. Here’s a feature run-down, in no particular order:

• It supports all the major IM protocols: AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber. Notably, there isn’t any support for IRC (yet).
• You can set universal away and available status messages, from the contact window a la Google Talk.
• It supports invisible mode.
• It can detect what music you are listening to.
• Hovering over a contact gives you more information about them, and gives you access to the user-specific menu.
• Separate theme and conversation window style support.
• Tabbed IM window, with support for dragging tabs out, or in to other IM windows.
• Fully-developed conversation log viewer, lets you choose by buddy and date (very nice!)
• The user-specific menu allows you to get info, send/receive IMs, transfer files (or check what files have been transferred), send a quick email to the contact via a pre-configured email account, send a text message (to any number), start an audio/video chat using a 3rd party flash app, look up past chats, block/add user and a quick link to the alert menu.
• Minimize IM windows and get a new IM popup. Reply from within the popup!
• Merge contacts. This is a great feature — you can combine multiple IM client contacts (say you friend’s AIM and Yahoo!) into one contact in the buddy list. Awesome.