I started searching for an all encompassing instant messaging program a few weeks ago. For those that are unfamiliar with the idea, it’s essentially a program that controls all my instant message accounts (AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, etc.) as well as email functions. I had used Trillian years ago, but I knew there had to be some advances since then. I was perusing the net for suggestions when I came across a LifeHacker post and decided to give Digsby a shot. It was the only tool on the list to combine social networking tools into the program, a very attractive hook.
Digsby currently supports Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter accounts for their social networking portion. After entering account details for each, you will be automatically logged in and sent notification messages for new messages, tweets, comments, friend status changes, photos, etc… It’s also a fast way to reach your accounts without having to log into the services each time. Besides the Digsby layout to the left, little icons for each service will be placed in the task bar for quick access. Left clicking will bring up full mini-feeds of friend updates and right clicking provides quick access to changing status updates. By all accounts, Digsby has streamlined my social networking compulsion and general email upkeep. I just have to worry about clicking too many notifications about silly wall posts.
Digsby also handles multiple accounts of the same type very well. I have two Twitter accounts (work & personal) and two gmail accounts logged in at the same time. I can load up or update each without having to change my login information. I can also delete emails without logging into the system; fantastic for junk email. In addition to my hotmail account, I also have 4 instant messengers loaded into the system. Those are primarily accessed in the main Digsby window. You can set a status message across all your instant messengers at once as well as set it to show music currently playing.
Everything isn’t perfect though. Digsby is a bit of a memory hog. I have 4 gig of RAM in my laptop, so I don’t suffer from a lack of memory. Others won’t be as fortunate though. Secondly, I get Twitter error messages up the wazoo. I’ve turned down the number of times Digsby checks for new Twitters and it has somewhat helped. I’m not sure if it’s a problem with Twitter or Digsby. Facebook notifications, while useful, will drive you nuts if you have hundreds of friends. It’s not so bad with a small group though. Finally Digsby is Windows only right now, sorry to Mac / Linux users!
Digsby is still being actively developed and improves on a weekly basis. Digsby automatically updates itself and you can read up on their progress in the Digsby blog.
