I can’t believe I’m actually using something other than Trillian to IM today. Nothing compares to the features and flexibility. It connects to everything, the appearance is customizable, plug-ins extend its features endlessly, the list goes on and on. However, AOL has released Triton and things may be heading back in their direction. While Triton doesn’t match-up with MSN and Yahoo in the themes arena (AOL still uses ‘expressions’ and those are just silly at times), it has a sleek new interface, an amazing radio using XM satellite built-in, and of course video and audio chat (I’ve not tested these features yet – no one’s available). But my favorite feature so far is one that many may be annoyed by, a bundled service. A bundled service is what almost every company is doing now to beef up services, 2 companies partner and include each others products with their own: Adobe Acrobat and Yahoo search bar, Google and Sun, etc… AIM has partnered with Plaxo, a company I’d heard of but never taken a moment to really look into. Plaxo works with your current contact list by maintaining a database on their website that is automatically updated with you and your friend’s info. It’s ingenious, simple, and it works – I’ve already had friends update their info that was severely outdated (I was even reminded my mom’s birthday is today thanks to her adding her info!).

For those that currently use AIM, head to AIM’s website and get the new version, then post back and let everyone know what you think!